PRESS RELEASE - CARE warmly welcomes the fact that Parliament has today voted for the provision of transferable allowances for married couples and encourages MPs to support a move towards a fully transferable allowance as soon as possible.

The transferable allowance, which will allow a non-working spouse to transfer 10% of their tax allowance to their working spouse, is a first step in recognising the importance of marriage and of the role played by stay-at home parents and carers, according to the social policy charity. It will come into force in April 2015, one month before the General Election and fifteen years after the removal of recognition of marriage from the income tax system.

Responding to this afternoon’s news CARE’s Director of Parliamentary Affairs, Dan Boucher, said:

“Families always were supported in the British tax system until the year 2000 when all recognition of family responsibility was removed, contrary to the situation in most developed countries in the world. This dragged Britain into an exclusive club with Mexico as the only other large country in the OECD not to support marriage through its tax system. In this context it is not surprising that married couple families have felt unfairly treated.”

“Today Parliament has voted for the United Kingdom to come back in from the cold and to align ourselves with international best practice in recognising the importance of marriage in the tax system. This will help ensure that married couple families are treated more fairly. It will also help ensure that the very significant public policy benefits of marriage in terms of adult, child and community wellbeing are better recognised.”

CARE’s Taxation of Families report demonstrates the disturbing implications of the current individualism of our tax system. The research demonstrated that the tax burden on a one-earner married family with two children on the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average wage (£35,883) was 45% greater than the OECD average in 2012.

CARE’s Chief Executive, Nola Leach, said:

“This landmark reform of our tax system is good news for married couples. Making this first step towards levelling the playing field for one-earner families, who have been punished within the tax and benefits system for not earning two incomes, is a critical move in the right direction to end the systemic unfairness faced by these families.”

“By increasing the size of the transferable allowance to be worth the full amount of an adult’s personal allowance, families with one-earner would really benefit.”

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For further information or interviews please contact James Mildred on tel: 07581 153693 or email: james.mildred@care.org.uk

Notes to Editors

Two votes took place in Parliament today: The first on a Labour amendment requiring a review of the proposal in 6 months was defeated 276 to 217. The second on the removal of the clause making provision for transferable allowances was defeated 279 to 214.

The ‘Taxation of Families – International Comparisons 2012’ report was launched on 11 March 2014 and draws upon the latest OECD data available. The figures therefore apply to the tax year 2012/13. The full report is available online here.