One earner married couples in the UK face a crippling tax burden in comparison to the OECD average, new research has revealed.

Taxation of the families– International Comparisons 2013 is published by leading social policy charity CARE (Christian Action Research and Education) and uses the latest OECD statistics (2013) to compare the way developed countries allocate the tax burden between different households.

With the budget to be announced next week, CARE’s research reveals one earner married couples with two children in the UK on the OECD average wage of £35, 448 are liable for a staggering 35 per cent more tax than the OECD average.

CARE argues the provision of the transferable allowance for married couples, which came into effect in April, provides a framework for addressing this problem but that its current restriction to just 10% prevents it from engaging meaningfully with the disturbing 35 per cent disparity highlighted by the report.

In light of this vital new research CARE is calling on the Prime Minister to act now on his key election commitment to expand transferable allowances.

CARE CEO Nola Leach said:

“It is staggering that in the UK today one earner married couples are still being so heavily penalised by the tax system.

“We warmly welcomed the recent introduction of the transferable allowance for married couples and congratulate the Prime Minister for this important first step.

“Its current limitation to just 10% of the personal allowances, though, means that it will make little or no real difference to the fact that the tax burden on one-earner married couples is so staggeringly high in comparison with the global average.

“Given that marriage is by every benchmark the most stable form of relationship and family breakdown – primarily from much less stable cohabiting relationships – costs £46 billion per annum, it does not make sense that we should make the option of marrying fiscally less accessible in this country.

“Expanding the transferable allowance, which the Prime Minister made an election commitment to do, would enable us to take important steps to put this right.

“Stay-at-home parents are making an important investment in their children and yet at present they end up being discriminated against by our current tax system, which surely a One Nation Prime Minister cannot be content with.

“Freed from the shackles of coalition government it is time for the Prime Minister to make good on his previous commitments to do more to uphold marriage and back families in the tax system.”

Notes to Editors:

The report can be found here.

For more information please contact CARE’s press office on 0207 227 4731 / 07581153693 or email james.mildred@care.org.uk

The report also revealed:

• At 75 per cent of the average wage EMTRs in 2013 were 73 per cent – the highest in the OECD, meaning aspirations is suffocated completely.
• At the same OECD average wage, single parents with two children face a tax burden 24 per cent greater than the OECD 2013 average.

During the recent election campaign, David Cameron said he hopes to expand the marriage tax allowance for married couples

It was recently reported that technical faults meant hundreds of eligible couples could not apply for the married tax break.