Public opinion has moncentrated.on demanding that husband and wife should
no longer have their incomes assessed together for the purpose of Income Tax. In the old days before the graduation of income Tax a .united assessment did not matter, as it made no difference to the rate of tax whether the incomes were lumped together or paid upon separately. Under a graduated Income Tax, however, everything is changed. When incomes are combined the rate of taxation is of course higher than it would be on the two separate incomes. This is, in effect, to place a tax upon marriage. But oven 'if this objection be thought not very real—on the ground that few Income Tax payers are prevented from passing through the doors of a church or of a registry office by the reflection that they will have to pay a few pounds more every year for respectability—the new political status of women makes it indefensible that the system of combining incomes for assessment should be continued. It is hardly to be expected that Mr. Chamberlain will be able to separate the incomes of husband and wife in this year's Budget, as there would be an immediate loan .to the Treasury, and many expedients of taxation have to be devised as substitutes.
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