The Marriage Penalty Tax Has Been Abolished

With the passage of new tax reform for 2018 and beyond, the marriage penalty tax is now practically abolished. Based on the new federal income tax brackets below, there is tax EQUALITY up until $300,000 per person. In other words, two individuals who make $300,000 and get married for a combined income of $600,000 will pay roughly the same amount of tax (35% marginal tax rate) as if they were single. Not bad given in the past, they had to pay a 39.6% rate on any income above $470,701.

2 Likes

I just would like to buy me an AR-15 and chase those liars who told me that we would be getting $1K doing our tax returns. :scream:

Well, not because of losing $600, but the idiots telling me $1K would be enough to buy a brand new car or remodel our kitchen. They got to go.

Apparently, you need to just show your library card to buy one…

So the new tax law is indifferent about single or married middle class and upper middle class. But why does it have a marriage penalty for married wealthy? Does it benefit our national interest to encourage wealthy people to stay single?

It’s a definite improvement on the old arrangement where a lot more people were being penalized for getting married. It’ll be a penalty now only if the couple earns more than half a million $

"The only visible marriage penalty tax from the chart comes in the form of two individuals making over $500,000 a year. In this case, the marriage penalty tax is 2% X $100,000 = $2,000, which is not much for a $1,000,000+ income family, especially since the past married income threshold was only $470,701+ at a 2.6% higher income rate.

In other words, a $500,000 income earner can always pay a maximum 35% marginal income tax rate. But once that $500,000 individual marries someone who makes $100,000 or more, all income over $600,000 gets taxed at 37%. If the $100,000 income earner stayed single, s/he could have only paid a 24% marginal income tax rate."

A bigger impact to most married couples will that the SALT deduction cap of $10k doesn’t double for married couples.