§ Mr. Croninasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will indicate the approximate amounts married women and unmarried women contributed to the total taxation of earned income for the year ending April 1976.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 7th July 1977; Vol. 934, c. 646], circulated the following information:
Because income tax is payable on total income, it can only be allocated on the basis of arbitrary assumptions between earned income and investment income, and between the earned income of 114W spouses where both are working. In arriving at the figures below, it has been assumed that earned income is the bottom slice of total income and that wives' earnings are the top slice of earned income where both spouses are receiving such income, except where the wife elects to be taxed separately. On that basis, the contributions from married women, and from single women and widows, to the total taxation of earned income were £1,730 million and £1,220 million respectively.