QIt is more natural, even essential, for the tax authorities to treat women and men on an equal footing. Unfortunately, the history of female conquests in this area shows that measures tending to establish this equality are sometimes to the detriment of wives and that the tax authorities are not kind to women.
Income tax has always been calculated at the household level, based on the sum of the income received by each spouse. Until 1970, the civil code made the husband the head of the family and, correlatively, he alone had the status of taxpayer even if his wife had her own income.
This situation provided the wife with a certain security in the event of divorce: she was not required to pay tax debts arising during the period of living together. In 1971, it was decided that from now on the spouses would jointly ensure the moral and material direction of the family.
The husband nevertheless remains the sole taxpayer until, at the pressing request of the feminists, the woman obtained recognition of the status of taxpayer, which was done with a certain hindsight, in 1983. This arrangement carries with it a poison pill for women who divorce: they become co-debtors, and therefore jointly responsible, tax debts that the household contracted during the last years of the period of living together.
We see, unfortunately, that this obligation is the source of serious disappointments for those who are unlucky enough to have separated from a husband who has committed serious declaratory insufficiencies and has also organized his insolvency to avoid paying debt reminders. taxation notified for this period.
Has the situation of married women who are divorcing improved since the transition to withholding of income tax? Those whose spouse is an employee have gained security given that the tax relating to the husband’s income is paid through deductions made over time.
If the ex-husband slips away
But the risk that we have just mentioned remains in the case, for example, where the husband is a self-employed worker who, during the period of living together, has taken liberties in determining the income or profit declared to the tax authorities. The tax refund resulting from the tax audit remains the responsibility of the divorced woman if the ex-husband evades.
Today, the withholding tax regime is criticized for penalizing married women who have lower incomes than their spouses. Indeed, if the couple has not exercised their option for the calculation of individualized deductions, the rate of deduction applied to the wife’s remuneration is the average tax rate of the overall household income, which is of course felt to the increase in taking into account the husband’s, by hypothesis, higher income. Thus, the deduction that the wife then suffers in respect of the levy is higher than that suffered by a single woman with an equal income.
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