§ Dr. Phippsasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the effect on tax revenue would be if spouses were to be treated as separate individuals for taxation purposes with the married allowance abolished and children's and other allowances available only to the spouse.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonI regret that the information on which to base a precise estimate is not available, in particular, information about wives' investment incomes. But assuming that the intention is to treat all wives separately for 523W tax purposes and to give the benefit of the child tax allowance only to them, it is likely that there would be a substantial increase in tax revenue, since many wives would not have sufficient income to make full use of the child tax allowances.