Historical 1948 Tax Question!

zygurat789

Ben8282 wrote: »

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.

The adjustment to the tax code did affect the tax for the whole year. When it was discontinued it was replaced by a vastly increased child benefit paid weekly which applied from the first Monday after birth.

zygurat789

antrobus wrote: »

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.

I always thought it was because March 25 was a quarter day but why that one out of the four?
The school year starts in September
An accounts year starts whenever
There must be lots of examples of years which start other than 1 January

Cook_County

I think I can resolve the answer to the original question.

I have dug out my handy textbook the "Taxation Key to Income Tax 1955-56" (edited by Ronald Staples). Yes this is just a few years later but the rules had probably not changed a great deal since 1948.

It says that (for 1955-56) "for any child living at any time within the year of assessment" that there was an additional allowance of £100 (for each child). This was only slightly lower than the personal allowance (it was £140 for the 1955-56 tax year). So had you arrived a day earlier a whole extra £100 of children's allowance could have been claimed, saving some decent amount of tax doubtless too.

AirlieBird

Oh dear, the OP's mum really did choose a bad day to be born. Not only would have been born a day earlier had saved his grandad a lot of money, but if the OP's mum pays tax then it's cost her as well as the Age Related Personal Allowance will only be available to people born before 6 April 1948.

John_Pierpoint

In 1948 Britain had a large army that had recently fought and won against a couple of countries (plus a few hangers on and some support for allies fighting in Pacific basin) it was also in the process of falling out with a former ally, run by a tyrant with a large and successful army.
[Is there an element of familiarity here?]

So its then Labour government was having problems with debt, in spite of being able to call upon a disintegrating empire and having control of a not particularly convertible currency. The ambitious plans to create a country fit for heroes were difficult to finance so:

Special rates have been introduced twice within the post-war years, causing income tax in certain circumstances to exceed 100%.

• For 1947-48 a special contribution was payable when a person’s total income exceeded £2,000. For investment income over £5,000 it was 50%. So with income tax at 45% and surtax at 52.5%, the effective rate was 147.5%.
• In 1967-68, the special charge was imposed. For investment income over £8,000, the rate was 45% which - with income tax at 41.25% and surtax at 50% - meant a total rate of 136.25%.

No wonder the parents were put out by the late arrival of their tax allowance.

The saga starts here
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/history/taxhis1.htm#top