Currently, husbands have to tick a box if they want to give their wife permission to talk to the authorities about their tax affairs, and even then the law itself effectively treats married women as if they do not exist.
However, Paul Eastwood, deputy comptroller of taxes, told a Scrutiny panel this week that talks were under way with law officers about how an interim amendment could be made to improve the ‘untenable’ system until a wider overhaul of Jersey’s personal tax system is complete.
That interim position would mean that husbands are presumed to have consented to their wife discussing their tax affairs, with an option to opt out.
A public consultation about the wider changes is due to be launched before Christmas, with the department saying that a ‘conversation’ is needed with the public on what they want.
The options, they say, include moving to an independent system where taxpayers are all treated individually or to one in which household income is assessed.
Mr Eastwood, giving evidence to the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel on Tuesday as part of the Treasury Minister’s quarterly update, said that everyone was in agreement that the tax law needed to be changed.
‘At the moment, for married couples, the tax law specifically states that the husband’s income includes the wife’s income. Effectively, he is the taxpayer, she doesn’t exist in terms of the income tax law at all,’ he said. ‘The permission he is giving in this context, when he ticks the box, is to discuss his tax affairs because she doesn’t have any. As part of the personal tax review, we have said all the way through that this position is untenable. But it is a conversation to have with the Island.’
He added: ‘What we are looking at in the interim maybe reverses the balance so that the husband would be presumed to have given consent for his wife to talk to the Taxes Office, and we are currently talking about how to go about that. If that can be done in advance of this Budget [due to debated in December] the minister may well bring an amendment to the Budget.
‘That isn’t fundamentally changing the basis of taxation but, at least in the future, the husband will be presumed to have given consent. Obviously if the husband has had reason to want to keep that to themselves, there would be an ability for them to opt out.’
When asked by the panel about timescales for the wider changes, Mr Eastwood said it would be 2020 or 2021 ‘at the earliest’.
