• Simple IRS explanation of marital status and filing status.
• Articles and links about marital status discrimination in taxation
• Federal studies and statements that quantify the extent to which married couples pay more or less under different taxation models

Articles and links about marital status discrimination in taxation

• Law professor Shari Motro’s op-eds argue that singles are subsidizing marriage even though marriage does not always create an economic unit or achieve social goals.
  • The IRS's Shotgun Marriage (PDF)
  • Single and Paying (PDF)
• Law professor Dennis J. Ventry, Jr.’s conference paper “The Politics and Economics of Gender Norms and Competing Family Forms under the U.S. Federal Income Tax, 1969-2006”.
• AtMP member Jim Larson’s website “Marriage Bonuses And Penalties”. It compares the taxes an unmarried couple pays with the taxes the same couple would pay if married, at several different levels of income. It links to an Excel spreadsheet that has additional tables and graphs.
• Thomas F. Coleman’s website describes the many ways singles are discriminated against by government and the private sector, including an explanation of income tax discrimination (as it stood before key changes were made in 2003).

Federal Studies and Statements that quantify the extent to which married couples pay more or less under different taxation models.

• 2006 EITC figures, “The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC): An Overview,” by Christine Scott, CRS Report for Congress, Order Code RL31768 (January 10, 2007). http://law.gsu.edu/gcarey/fall06/EITC.pdf
• Quantitative data on the size of marriage penalties/bonuses, “Marriage Penalties and Bonuses: A Longer Term,” by Robert Gillette, Janet Holtzblatt, and Emily Y. Yin, Proceeding of the National Tax Association, 2004, Washington, DC, National Tax Association, pp. 468-478. As of March 2007 this report is not available online. If you find an online link for it, please tell us.
• 2004 figures from the Congressional Research Service, “Federal Income Tax Treatment of the Family”, by Jane G. Gravelle http://www.opencrs.net/rpts/RL33755_20061219.pdf.
  This December 2006 report also has a helpful discussion of the different ways tax policy can address equity, although it fails to recognize unmarried families.
• 1996 figures from the Congressional Budget Office: “For Better or Worse: Marriage and the Federal Income Tax” 3-4 (June, 1997). http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=7&sequence=0&from=1.
  This June 1997 report is a simulation of tax year 1996 and discusses the methodology in detail.
• 1999 figures from the Congressional Budget Office: “Updated Estimates of Marriage Penalties and Bonuses. Memorandum dated September 18, 1998”. http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/TaxFacts/papers/cbo_marriage_update.pdf
  This memorandum merely updates the main numbers in the above report. It simulates tax year 1999, even though it was written in 1998.
• 1999 figures from the Treasury Department: “Defining And Measuring Marriage Penalties And Bonuses” by Nicholas Bull Janet Holtzblatt, James R. Nunns, US Department of the Treasury, 1999. http://www.ustreas.gov/ota/ota82_revised.pdf
• Congressional Research Service analysis of CBO and Treasury Department studies: “RL30800: The Federal Income Tax and the Treatment of Married Couples: Background and Analysis”, Gregg A. Esenwein, Congressional Research Service, updated March 23, 2001. http://www.cnie.org/nle/crsreports/economics/econ-95.cfm
  This discusses the CBO’s 1999 figures and the Treasury’s 1999 study, and has a good discussion of the history of marriage and taxes. It explains how marriage bonuses and marriage penalties occur, and why it is impossible to eliminate them in a tax system (a) that allows married couples to file jointly, (b) where married couples with the same joint income are all taxed the same, and (c) that is progressive (higher incomes pay higher tax rates).
• May 2003 Treasury Department press release: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/js410.htm.
  “Enacting marriage penalty relief in 2003 will reduce taxes for 34 million married couples by an average of $589”. This tax reduction for marrieds totals $20 Billion: (34 million x $589). These changes were enacted and made retroactive to Jan. 1, 2003. We are not aware of any publicly available study that documents this estimate.
• Statistics on number of tax filers by filing status in 2003: “Table 1.2--2003, Individual Income Tax, All Returns: Adjusted Gross Income, Exemptions, Deductions, and Tax Items, by Size of Adjusted Gross Income and by Marital Status” http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/03in12ms.xls.