§ Mr. David ShawTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make it his policy in the next Finance Bill to extinguish the differential charge to taxation resulting from lawfully married couples paying more in taxation than two single persons cohabiting on identical individual and unit incomes.
§ Mr. Norman LamontThe Green Paper "The Reform of Personal Taxation" (Cmnd. 9756), published in March 1986, discussed the so-called "tax penalties" on marriage and how they might be removed under a new system of independent taxation of husband and wife with transferable allowances. I announced in the Budget debate this year that the Government would not be going ahead with transferable allowances at this stage but would explore the possibility of a halfway house to the approach in the Green Paper. I made it clear that the Government consider it important to remove the tax penalties on marriage.