§ Mr. George Cunninghamasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the amounts of direct taxation collected from persons on (a) less than a quarter of average earnings, (b) between one-quarter and a half, (c) between a half and three-quarters, (d) between three-quarters and average earnings and (e) between average and one and a quarter of average earnings and so on up to twice average earnings, giving the number of persons in each band.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonI regret that information is not available in the exact form requested. The table below shows income tax and surtax paid in ranges of total net income compared with average earnings for 1972–73, the latest year for which the information is available.
Range of total net income (proportion of average earnings) Number of incomes Income tax and surtax (millions) (£m.) Less than ¼ * — ¼ to ½ 3.1† 115 ½ to ¾ 4.3 490 ¾ to 1 4.3 910 1 to ¼ 3.5 1,005 1¼ to 1½ 2.3 900 1½ to 1¾ 1.2 610 1¾ to 2 0.6 410 2 and over 1.2 2,130 * Not available. † Over £595 p.a. only. These estimates are based on the Survey of Personal Incomes 1972–73 carried out by the Inland Revenue Department.
Total net income is defined in Inland Revenue Statistics 1974 at page 41.
Average earnings are taken to be 52 times the average weekly earnings in October 1972 of full-time male manual workers in manufacturing and certain other industries, viz, £35.82.
In estimating the number of incomes, husband and wife are counted as one.
As the survey of personal incomes does not provide complete information about the smallest incomes, the number with incomes above £595 p.a. only are shown. The most recently published EEC statistics indicate that taxation and social 532W welfare contributions as a share of GDP were lower in the United Kingdom than the average in the Community as a whole.