§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the categories of income tax payers for whom the average percentage burden of total taxation is higher now than in 1979.
§ Mr. LilleySince income tax rates have been reduced and the main personal allowances increased by substantially more than the rate of inflation, taxpayers will now pay a lower proportion of their income in tax than in 1978–79 unless their incomes have risen even more rapidly than allowances. Average earnings have risen rather more than this. For taxpayers of working age whose incomes have increased in line with average earnings, average rates of income tax are lower for everyone except some married10W men with earnings of less than three quarters of average earnings. None the less, on the same basis, real take-home pay is higher than in 1978–79 at all levels of earnings.