§ Mr. Barnettasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the reduction in revenue in a full year from assessing husband and wife separately for the purposes of income tax and surtax.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinIf wives were to be taxed as single persons on their own income and husbands as single persons on theirs in all cases there would be a net gain to the revenue. If the earned income of husband and wife were taxed separately and the husband continued to be entitled to the married allowance the cost would be about £25 million. If, alternatively, separate taxation were conditional on the husband giving up the married allowance so that the couple were taxed as two single people on their earned incomes, the cost would be about £11 million. If this treatment were extended to investment income in either case the costs would of course be considerably greater, but no figure can be given because it is not known how much of the investment income returned by husbands belongs to the husband and wife respectively.