Historical 1948 Tax Question!

no_control

Hello

Apologies if this is in the wrong place - I wasn't sure where to post it!

My Mum was born on 6th April 1948. She has told me that her Dad always used to say he lost a years tax because she was born on the first day of the new tax year and that if she had been born the day before on 5th April it would have saved him a lot of money...

Does anyone know why this would be the case? I'm just intrigued...

Thank you!

Skint_yet_Again

not sure about y/e 5 april 1948 (1947/48), but there appears to have been an allowance for children in 1948/49

1948/49 page 2: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/tax_structure/incometax_pa-and-reliefs_1948to1973.pdf

John_Pierpoint

I was only two at the time but it probably worked the same way as weddings.

As well as child allowance paid to the mother the father used to be able to claim a tax allowance for a tax year if he had his kid in his household on the last day of the tax year; April the fifth.

The tax year works like that because historically it was sensible to start the year when the Angel Gabriel got the Virgin May in the family way.

There used to be lots of weddings at the start of April because the tax man would then pay for the ceremony in the form of a tax rebate..

It no longer works like that, even for working women getting married, as the allowances for Miss Smith last as long as Miss Smith exists and then switch to Mrs Jones - so there is almost no tax saving from being married these days.

However if you are thinking of dying then the autumn is good time. You will benefit from a whole year's personal tax allowance but it will be set against only six months of income and a rebate should be waiting to be claimed.

I also think you could cheer up your mum by letting her know that she will be one of the first in the country to to be caught by the "grannie tax" as she will be 65 a day too late to qualify for the larger personal allowance.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-2119277/Budget-pensions-tax-allowance-We-explain-YOU-affected-Granny-Tax.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

chrisbur

Yes definately an allowance for children and from what I have been told but cannot definately confirm in the past tax allowances were given for the full tax year so if you qualified by having a child on 5 April the last day you got the allowance back to 6 April before.

Mikeyorks

Indeed. Heavily pregnant women were given lots of hot baths as midnight approached on the 5th.

Whilst it may not always have had the desired result ...... at least they were nice and clean!

no_control

Thank you all so much for your answers - I really appreciate your help. I did search online but couldn't find anything.

Family mystery solved - thank you again!

thenudeone

Mikeyorks wrote: »

Indeed. Heavily pregnant women were given lots of hot baths as midnight approached on the 5th.

I was born a week or two earlier than planned close to the tax year end in the 1960s. When she was admitted, my mother was asked very earnestly by the midwife whether she had "taken anything" to bring the birth forward, as some women did, to get a year's full tax relief!

zygurat789

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

The tax year works like that because historically it was sensible to start the year when the Angel Gabriel got the Virgin May in the family way.

I always thought it was to do with the change of caledars and peolpe's insistence to be taxed on a years income rather than 354 days.

antrobus

zygurat789 wrote: »

I always thought it was to do with the change of caledars and peolpe's insistence to be taxed on a years income rather than 354 days.

Both. The new year used to start on the 25th March (the feast of the annunciation). When we switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar we 'lost' 11 days and that became the 5th April. The taxman has stuck to the old year, even though the rest of us have gone back to the old Roman way of starting the new year on the 1st January.

Ben8282

Prior to the introduction of child benefit in the 1970's an allowance was paid to the father by means of an adjustment to his tax code. This was considered unfair and replaced by child benefit.

Whether the allowance could be claimed only for whole tax years I have no idea.

John_Pierpoint

Important dates, when you get back 2 or 300 hundred years, are often recorded as being "in the xx year of the rule of xxxxxxxx"; for example the fort built at Tilbury, after good Queen Bess had a near miss with the Spanish Armada, proudly proclaims in Latin over its entrance gate, that it was constructed in xx year of the reign of Charles...........

Which might go some of the way to explaining how the current king in waiting tried to force up the fares on the ferry.