§ Sir Frederic Bennettasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give details of the percentage of total personal incomes of the single person and married persons without children taken in income tax and employees' social security contributions in the EEC countries, the United States of America and Japan in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonI regret that information in the form requested is not available. The nearest information I am aware of relates to the earnings of the "Average Production Worker", defined in statistics published by the OECD as a worker who is earning a wage equivalent to the average earnings in the manufacturing sector in each particular year. The following tables show, for the two categories mentioned by the hon. Member, 409W the combined income tax and employees social security contributions payable as a percentage of the Average Production
A. SINGLE MAN 1972 1973 1974 Belgium … … … 22 21 23 Denmark … … … 40 41 43 France … … … 15 15 16 Germany … … … 30 31 33 Ireland … … … 22 24 24 Italy … … … 15 16 12 Japan … … … 14 14 14 Luxembourg … … … 25 26 Not available Netherlands … … … 32 34 35 United Kingdom* … … … 26 27 31 United States … … … 24 25 26
B. MARRIED MAN WITH TWO CHILDREN 1972 1973 1974 Belgium … … … … 19 20 21 Denmark … … … … 34 34 38 France … … … … 8 8 8 Germany … … … … 21 23 23 Ireland … … … … 12 15 15 Italy … … … … 14 15 12 Japan … … … … 8 8 9 Luxembourg … … … … 15 16 Not available Netherlands … … … … 30 31 31 United Kingdom … … … … 19 21 23 United States … … … … 15 17 17 Notes: (a) Figures include local income taxes where applicable. (b) Children are assumed to be between 5 and 12 years old. Source: "Revenue Statistics of OECD Member Countries 1965–74", Annex II, Tables 5 and 6. * (The published figures for the single man in the United Kingdom in Table 5 are incorrect. The correct figures are shown above.)