tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post8604716088364005547..comments2024-03-28T18:57:15.124-06:00Comments on Wash Park Prophet: Taxing Those With An Ability To PayAndrew Oh-Willekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-120108674392318152009-03-25T16:31:00.000-06:002009-03-25T16:31:00.000-06:00To go off on a tangent, I used to use "ability to ...To go off on a tangent, I used to use "ability to pay" as an argument that there was no such thing as a "marriage penalty" in the tax system.<BR/><BR/>Those who got married now had one household to pay for, instead of two -- at least for those who lived chastely. It was only those who cohabitated prior to marriage (which used to be illegal) who realized any kind of so-called marriage penalty.<BR/><BR/>There are a couple of scenarios for chaste couples where this worked to their advantage. If both were working, then they had two incomes and one household. They were so well-off that the acronym DINK was invented for them. DINKs, being well-off, had an increased ability to pay, and thus should pay the so-called marriage penalty. Or, perhaps the groom had a job and the bride was living with her parents. In this case, the tax code provided a tax *break* because the groom got to change his status from single to married.<BR/><BR/>It took a decade for social conservatives to catch onto this. They finally did a study and realized that in a revenue-neutral scheme, eliminating the so-called marriage penalty shifted the tax burden from married couples onto singles and/or married couples with children, and from dual-income families onto single-income families. I.e., it created a child-penalty and a stay-at-home-mom penalty -- definitely not socially conservative!<BR/><BR/>And besides the whole point was to placate the complaining from the cohabitators -- not socially conservative either (except to lower a barrier for cohabitators to get married, but this arguably in turn encourages cohabitation in the first place, knowing that the eventual barrier to marriage has been lowered).Michael Malakhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10007582156392845677noreply@blogger.com