§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of he Exchequer, further to the answer of 8 March, Official Report, c. 299–300, concerning the trading profits for farmers for tax purproses, (a) how many farmers in each range were married to wives who were assessed separately in the same class of business, (b) how many individuals in each range were in partnership and (c) how many of these were wives.
§ Mr. RidleyI regret that the information requested at(c) is not available and that at (a) can only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The information given below in reply to (b) is not derived from the survey of personal incomes, on which the previous answer was based, but from an analysis of assessments to income tax made upon farming partnerships under case I of schedule D. It is, therefore, on a different basis from the information given in the previous reply.
Range of net true income (Lower limit) £ Number of partnerships assessed '000 Number of partners '000 Nil 11.0 24.7 500 2.5 5.5 1,000 2.8 6.3 1,500 2.4 5.6 2,000 10.1 21.8 3,000 8.6 20.0 4,000 6.7 15.7 5,000 5.6 13.4 6,000 3.5 8.4 7,000 3.1 7.5 8,000 3.1 7.6 9,000 2.1 5.6 10,000 3.5 9.1 12,000 3.4 9.1 15,000 3.4 9.3 20,000 3.9 11.5 All ranges 75.8 181.1 Notes.
(1) The analysis covers agriculture and horticulture combined (Minimum 93W List Headings 001/1–3 of the 1968 Standard Industrial Classification)
(2) The numbers are those of assessments made in the year ended 31 October 1979 irrespective of the income tax year concerned. Most of them relate to the income tax year 1978–79. Individual partners with interests in more than one partnership may be counted more than once.
(3) Net true income is the profit chargeable to tax after the allowance of various statutory deductions such as retirement annuity relief, losses, stock relief and capital allowances. The total amount of the assessments on partnerships analysed in the table was £490 million.