§ Mr. George Cunninghamasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the tax forgone in 1976–77 as a result of allowances for children not resident in the United Kingdom; what is his estimate of the number of: (a) children and (b) parents or guardians involved; and what would be his estimates on each of the foregoing if the allowances were reduced to £195 for the first children and £170 for other children.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 10th January 1977; Vol 923, c. 419], supplied the following details:
Direct information on which to base calculations is not available centrally, but the number of child tax allowances for 575W non-resident children is estimated to be in the region of ½ million and the value of these allowances to be about £50 million. The value of the allowances reduced by £105 for first children and by £130 for other children is estimated to be about £30 million.
I regret that no information is available about the number of parents or guardians of these children.