Written Answers
Un Annual Membership Contribution
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, in view of the fact that some Members of the United Nations, including Russia, are well behindhand with their annual membership contribution, our Representative has been instructed to assist the United Nations to correct this.
United Kingdom delegates to the United Nations regularly call for Member States which are behindhand in their contributions to meet their obligations. We would be glad to support any generally agreed measures to ensure prompt and full payment of assessed contributions to the UN Regular Budget.
Higher-Rate Taxpayers
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will estimate the numbers and percentages of taxpayers paying the higher rate of tax before April 1978; and whether they will estimate the numbers and percentages who would have been paying the higher rate of tax (
a) under the April Budget provisions, and ( b) after the Opposition Party's Amendments to the Budget.
The estimated figures are as follows:
| Higher-rate taxpayers ('000) | Percentage of total taxpayers | |
| 1977–78 | 920 | 4·5 |
| 1978–79, if 1977–78 allowances and higher-rate thresholds had applied | 1,370 | 6·4 |
| 1978–79 under Budget provisions | 910 | 4·3 |
| 1978–79 under Finance Bill as finally amended | 660 | 3·1 |
| Married couples are counted as one. | ||