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Full-Text Articles in Law
The I.R.S.'S Shotgun Marriage, Shari Motro
The I.R.S.'S Shotgun Marriage, Shari Motro
Law Faculty Publications
Professor Motro argues against current federal tax policy permitting married couples joint filing status regardless of actual economic unity or lack thereof.
A New I Do: Towards A Marriage-Neutral Income Tax, Shari Motro
A New I Do: Towards A Marriage-Neutral Income Tax, Shari Motro
Law Faculty Publications
The federal income tax system treats married couples as if each spouse earned approximately one-half of the couple's combined income through a mechanism called "income splitting. " For many one-earner and unequal-earner couples, income splitting produces a significant advantage, a "marriage bonus," by shifting income from higher to lower rate brackets. Marriage-based income splitting relies on a presumption that marriage is a good indicator of economic unity between two taxpayers. It is not. Marriage does not require spousal sharing, and many unmarried couples share everything they earn. As a result, the current system extends the benefit of income splitting to …