The Treasury Minister, Deputy Susie Pinel (pictured), will announce to a group of influential Jersey women on International Women’s Day that she plans to propose an end to the practice of taxing wives’ income through their husbands.
This follows an island-wide consultation, the results of which will inform the Treasury’s review of the island’s personal income tax system. As well as asking for islanders’ views on the way married and unmarried couples are taxed, the consultation asked for views on personal allowances, support for families with children, and the current tax rates.
Deputy Pinel said: “I am determined to end the way married women are treated as the financial chattels of their husbands by Jersey’s personal income tax system. The department has been consulting islanders on the way ahead, and I expect to receive the results in the next few weeks.
“The main options for change are clear: either independent taxation, where everyone is taxed individually on their own income, or a form of household taxation that taxes a couple on their joint income regardless of marital status.
“Treasury officials are analysing the results to determine the best option for Jersey and I will give my own conclusion in July as part of the Government Plan 2020-2023. If the States Assembly agrees with my preferred option, I plan to propose draft legislation as early as possible in 2020, and will aim for 2021 to be the first year in which husbands and wives are taxed under the new regime.”
The Treasury’s wider review of personal taxation has the following objectives:
• Improve the system so that it better reflects modern society
• Improve the equity of the system, so that similar households pay similar amounts of income tax
• Ensure that the system is simple to administer
• Make the system more understandable for taxpayers
• Eensure the system continues to raise a similar amount of personal income tax revenue