§ Mr. Barry FieldTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the last period for which figures are available how many wives whose husbands paid higher rate tax had no declarable income.
§ Mr. LilleyProvisionally estimates are that in 1990–91 about 700,000 wives whose husbands are liable to the higher rate of income tax have insufficient income to be liable to tax. A small proportion of these have no earned or investment income. Estimates are based on a projection of the distribution of income between husbands and wives reported in the 1987–88 survey of personal incomes.