Congratulations: Married people pay most of the nation’s income tax

Pew reports: “In 1970, 69 percent of adults were married, and they paid 80 percent of all federal income taxes. As of 2014, the share of married adults had dropped to half of the adult population (50 percent) but the share of income taxes paid by them fell much less, to 74 percent.”

Essentially, even though fewer people are getting married, the fact that they’re still paying a huge portion of income taxes shows they’re still making a big chunk of change. To wit: “In 2014, the average return filed by a married couple or individual reflected an adjusted gross income (AGI) that was more than three times that of the average unmarried return ($115,100 compared with $35,200) – a gap that can be partially explained by the fact that many married returns are filed by two-income households.”

Yay for capitalism? Not so much.

Marriage penalty tax discourages marriage and high-earners

Pew continues, “The fact that married Americans continue to pay roughly three-quarters of the nation’s income taxes, in spite of their dwindling share of the adult population, is in part a result of the changing demographics and economics of marriage. Marriage is increasingly linked with higher levels of education, which are in turn linked to higher incomes.”

So people who go to college tend to get married and tend to earn more money. The cherry on top? They get to pay more in income tax than they did if they filed as an unmarried person. Before filing our taxes this year, several friends mentioned they or their spouse earned more money than the year prior, were bumped to a higher tax bracket, and had to pay more taxes than ever before (this happened to me too). It’s almost like the marriage penalty tax discourages people from reaching their full earning potential.

While marriage has likely not declined in the United States due to this penalty, I could see where, for some couples, it played a small role in remaining together but unmarried. Yet studies have shown marriage is a boon for people — they’re happier — and society. We should not discourage marriage.

I rarely agree with The New York Times, but a few years ago they called to eliminate this so-called marriage penalty tax, and I agree:

The marriage penalty needs to go. It’s a throwback to the days when women were homemakers and men were breadwinners. It discourages dual-income couples from getting or remaining married, while thwarting efforts to create a more inclusive and egalitarian society. Moreover, the penalty conflicts with current labor demographics, evolving gender roles and proliferating family forms. It disproportionately burdens underrepresented minorities, who exhibit more equal income ratios between spouses. And another group of Americans are likely to be hit soon as well: same-sex couples who earn similar incomes.

Their solution? “Taxes could be assessed on everyone’s individual income rather than on aggregated family income. Under such a system (which prevails in other countries), marrying would be tax neutral and better reflect a modern, progressive society.” This would remove any tax-related barriers folks might have to getting married, thus preserving an essential aspect of society, while still encouraging people to reach their full-earning potential, an essential aspect of capitalism.

Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.

If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.