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1 Nick Kasprak, Effects of Marriage on Tax Burden Vary Greatly with Income Level, Equality 1 (2013)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/ffdfcxz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: FUDTOFiscal Fact
January 10, 2013
No. 352
Effects of Marriage on Tax Burden Vary
Greatly with Income Level, Equality
By
Nick Kasprak

Effects of Marriage on Income and Payroll Tax Liabil
Singlefor various households
Earner-
Household  i
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inc

Wage Income

'SIV

ity      Joint filing has been a source of
confusion ever since the filing
status was created in 1949.
Marriage has the potential to
create a significant tax penalty, but
it can also lead to a tax bonus in
bonus    other situations, and for most
taxpayers, determining the effect is
anything but simple.
Neutral  To illustrate how filing status
affects tax liability, we've created a
chart (left) that plots the two most
4.2%     important variables against each
penalty
ent of   other-on the Y axis, equality of
me)      incomes between the two spouses,
and on the X axis, total household
wage income. The color represents
the theoretical marriage penalty or
bonus for a household with only
wage income, no children, and no
itemized deductions.

In general, there tends to be a marriage tax bonus when the two partners have widely disparate incomes and
a marriage tax penalty when they have similar or equal incomes. There are two countervailing forces at
work-on the one hand, the higher tax rate brackets kick in at greater income levels for joint filers than for
single filers, but on the other hand, adding two incomes together can more than compensate for this effect.
The need to balance these two effects is inherent in any tax system with a joint filing status-efforts to
reduce the marriage bonus for certain filers will necessarily lead to a marriage penalty for others and vice
versa.

ao
 :.:
Exactly.
50/50'

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