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Many have heard of the "marriage penalty " which is not a penalty in the true sense of the tax law, but rather describes the situation where a married couple pays more taxes by filing jointly than they would pay if each spouse could file as a single person.

The Internal Revenue Code is filled with provisions where tax liability depends on whether a taxpayer is married or single. Some examples are:

1. the tax rates
2. the standard deduction
3. the earned income tax credit
4. the dependent care credit,
5. the child credit
6. IRAs
7. capital loss limits
8. education tax incentives
9. social security benefits taxation

The marriage penalty occurs because:

1. the sum of the standard deductions for two people who file separately (unmarried filing status) is higher than the standard deduction for a couple filing jointly, and;
2. a married couple falls into higher tax brackets more quickly than two individuals who file separately, and more of their combined income falls into the exemption phase-out range and/or the itemized deduction limitation range.
3. In effect, the second earner in a family (the lower paid of the two) has his or her income added to that of the primary earner and thus is often taxed at a higher marginal rate.