So DH & I would each pay less tax if we split up?
Independent taxation was brought in in 1990 and was seen as a huge advance in equality - before this, a married woman’s income was simply part of her husband’s income and taxed as such.
What if DH was a 40% tax payer and I wanted to return to work part time? If we were taxed as a family unit, my £10k pa earnings would be taxed at 40% too
I am aware of the history but it certainly isn't an advance in equality at this point: it huges penalises single parents, almost all of whom are women.
Yes you should pay less tax on your income if you split up as you'd be maintaining a household from a single income, not two.
No, I am proposing that taxes are adjusted for single people, not for couples. They should get the same tax allowance as a couple, not half. All tax thresholds, child benefit thresholds, childcare thresholds etc doubled. They still have very similar outgoings but have to pay it all from one income, this should be reflected in the tax system. The discount on Council Tax should be 50% not 25%.
In the case of single parents they are already responsible for earning all of the money and doing all of the childcare where a two adult household have twice the hours per day to divide it up between them. To then tax them more on the same level of household earnings is obscene.
There is a reason why child poverty is disproportionately located in single adult households. This is the simple and fair solution adopted in most modern countries to mitigate that.