Income-tax allowances and the family in Great Britain

Income-tax allowances for dependants in Great Britain give financial aid to family-supporting taxpayers which is similar in nature to cash payments received from the State under the family allowances programme. In effect, by differentiating between single and family-supporting taxpayers, the State is sharing the financial burden of caring for each taxpayer's family. In this article an estimate is made of the total cost of such dependants' allowances to the State in the form of lost tax revenues. Analysing the cost of income-tax allowances by income group and family size, the author attempts to point out certain inequities in the State's programme which is aimed at partially alleviating the relatively unfavourable position of the family-supporting taxpayer.