Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988

284 Effect of separate assessment on personal reliefs

(1) Where, by virtue of an application under section 283(1), income tax for any year of assessment is to be assessable and chargeable on the incomes of a husband and wife as if they were not married, the total relief given to the husband and the wife by way of personal reliefs shall be the same as if the application had not had effect with respect to the year and, subject to subsections (2) and (3) below, the reduction of tax flowing from the personal reliefs shall be allocated to the husband and the wife—

(a) so far as it flows from relief under section 273 or Chapter III of this Part, to the husband or the wife according as he or she made the payment giving rise to the relief;

(b) so far as it flows from relief in respect of a dependent relative under section 263 or relief in respect of a son or daughter under section 264, to the husband or the wife according as he or she maintains the relative or son or daughter; and

(c) as to the balance, in proportion to the amounts of tax which would have been payable by them respectively if no personal reliefs had been allowable.

(2) Subject to subsection (3) below, the amount of reduction of tax allocated to the wife by virtue of subsection (1) above shall not be less than the reduction resulting from section 279(5) in the tax chargeable in respect of her earned income, and the amount of reduction of tax allocated to the husband shall be correspondingly reduced.

(3) Where the amount of reduction of tax allocated to the husband under subsection (1) above exceeds the tax chargeable on the income of the husband for the year of assessment, the balance shall be applied to reduce the tax chargeable on the income of the wife for that year; and where the amount of reduction of tax allocated to the wife under that subsection exceeds the tax chargeable on her income for the year of assessment, the balance shall be applied to reduce the tax chargeable on the income of the husband for that year.

(4) Returns of the total incomes of the husband and the wife may be made for the purposes of this section either by the husband or by the wife, but, if the Board are not satisfied with any such return, they may obtain a return from the wife or the husband, as the case may be.

(5) In this section “personal reliefs” means the reliefs provided for by Chapters I and III of this Part.