To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (a) whether he will raise the income limits which govern the Inland Revenue's practice for remitting arrears of tax where information provided to the Revenue had not been used within a reasonable time and (b) what are the implications of independent taxation for the income limits.

I am pleased to announce that limits are to be increased from today. From 6 April 1990 the income scale will apply separately to the incomes of husbands and wives.(a) The Inland Revenue's practice of remitting tax in cases where the Department has not made timely use of information available is set out in a White Paper of July 1971 (first report from the Select Committee on the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration: Session 1970–71: Cmnd 4729). The proportion of arrears collected varies according to the size of the taxpayer's gross income; the balance of the arrear is remitted.The new scale of limits will apply to arrears of tax, the actual of likely amount of which is first notified to the taxpayer of his agent on or after today.

New scale Gross income	Percentage of arrears remitted	Old scale Gross income
£		£
0 to 12,000	All	0 to 8,500
12,001 to 14,500	0·75	8,501 to 10,500
14,501 to 18,500	0·50	10,501 to 13,500
18,501 to 22,000	0·25	13,501 to 16,000
22,001 to 32,000	0·10	16,001 to 23,000
Over 32,000	None	Over 23,000

For taxpayers aged 65 or over or who are in receipt of the national insurance retirement or widows' pension each of the bands is increased by the following:

Pensioners addition to each band
New scale	Old scale
£	£
3,300	2,500

If a taxpayer in this category has gross income of £15,300 or less the whole of the arrear will be remitted, whilst some remission will be allowed on gross income up to £35,300.