Simple IRS explanation of marital status and filing status.
Articles and links about marital status discrimination in taxation
- Lily Kahng’s paper on “eliminating marriage as a basis for preferential treatment under the tax law.”
- 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”.
- UE 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 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).
