Vol. 395 No. 5
33 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Finance the estimated cost in a full year to the Exchequer of taking family size into consideration in the PAYE tax system by the reintroduction of child benefit of £300 per annum per child, in light of the fact that family size is an important contributory factor in the overlapping of poverty and income tax.
I presume the Deputy is referring to the general child income tax allowance which was abolished in 1986. Before its abolition, this allowance stood at £100 per qualifying child and was available to all qualifying taxpayers whether self-employed or taxed under PAYE. The full-year cost, estimated by reference to the 1990-91 income tax year, of reintroducing the child tax allowance on this basis, at the level mentioned by the Deputy, is estimated at £68 million.
I am aware of the difficulties faced by low-paid taxpayers with family responsibilities. In the 1989 budget, in a major initiative designed to help such taxpayers, I increased the general exemption limit for a married couple from £5,500 to £6,000 and introduced a child addition of £200 per child in conjunction with the exemption limits. In the 1990 budget, I further increased the general exemption limit, to £6,500 for a married couple, and I also increased the child addition to £300 per child. As a result, the exemption limit for a married couple with two children, which was £5,500 in 1988, will be £7,100 in the coming tax year, an increase of almost 30 per cent, while the limit for a married couple with four children will increase over the same period to £7,700, an increase of 40 per cent.
