asked the Minister for Finance the estimated loss to the Exchequer if husbands' and wives' incomes were assessed for income tax purposes separately.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Incomes Assessments of Husbands and Wives.
97.
Existing law provides that the incomes of a husband and wife may be separately assessed where an application in that behalf is made. In that event the personal allowances and reliefs to which the husband would have otherwise been entitled are apportioned between the spouses, so that the total amount of tax payable in respect of the combined incomes is not affected. Possibly, however, what the Deputy has in mind is that a husband and wife should be dealt with as if they were not married and that each should be entitled to the personal allowance available to a single person. This treatment would reduce the amount of tax payable only where both spouses had substantial income. Where, for example as is commonly the case, the wife had no income, or only a small income, the liability would be increased and there would be a gain to the Exchequer, not a loss. The overall effect could not be estimated without a detailed investigation involving an expenditure of time and money which, in my opinion, would not be justified.
The Minister correctly assumes I was concerned about earned income allowances for both spouses being assessed separately. Is it not true that there is a moral question here and that in fact in operating the present system, you could more or less say there is a State subsidy on sin, because if people were getting married and had reasonable incomes, they would probably find it would be cheaper to live together without tying the bonds of matrimony so long as this system prevails? I think the Minister will agree that more wives are working now and also that incomes are going up, and therefore it is time this matter was reviewed?
I am concerned with the financial position, not the moral position. I always shy away from the realms of moral problems.
Will the Minister consider the financial as well as the moral aspects of the matter before the next Budget?
I shall certainly ask the Minister for Finance to consider the financial implications. I shall refuse to ask him to consider the moral ones.