asked the Minister for Finance (a) the number of married women paying tax under the PAYE system; (b) the amount of tax paid by them in each of the last three financial periods; (c) the cost to the Exchequer of giving them equal tax allowances; and (d) the methods or assumptions used in calculating this cost.
Written Answers. - Married Women's PAYE.
266.
(a) The number of married women with income from employment assessable to income tax under PAYE is estimated at approximately 70,000. The number of married women with other assessable income is estimated at approximately 30,000.
(b) Not available.
(c) In the current year 1977-78 the married personal allowance added to the working wife's allowance is equal to twice the single allowance. If there-fore married couples, where both spouses are earning, were given two separate single allowances instead of the allowances mentioned there would be no extra cost. Under the budget proposals the position in 1978-79 will be that the personal allowance of a married couple, both earning, will exceed twice the single allowance by £230.
What may be in mind is that a wife with earnings or other income of her own should be given the benefit of having the lower rates of tax applied to her income as if she were a single person. The cost of this to the Exchequer would be about £20 million in a full year.
(d) The cost quoted under (c) would be in respect of a concession confined to those married women who have earnings or other income in their own right. If however instead of the grant of a working wife's allowance confined to cases where a wife is earning, the tax system were framed so that the total income of all married couples were to be treated as received jointly and assessed equally on both spouses as single persons the net cost would be some £60 million in the tax year 1977-78.