An income tax cannot simultaneously maintain progressive marginal tax rates, an equal tax burden for all married couples with identical incomes ("couples equity"), and neutrality with respect to the tax burden of married vs. unmarried couples ("marriage neutrality"). Existing treatments of this...

This testimony before the House Committee on Ways and Means explains why it is difficult to eliminate marriage penalties in the EITC. The testimony discusses policy options including a two-earner deduction or credit

Using four decades of variation in the federal and state Earned Income Tax Credit, we estimate the impact of the EITC on education and employment outcomes on children exposed to EITC expansions in childhood. Reduced-form results suggest that an additional $1,000 in EITC exposure when a child is...

We develop, apply, and test a new measure of the marriage tax: the reduction in future spending from getting married. Our measure is a comprehensive, actuarial (expected) present value. It incorporates all major and most minor US tax and benefit programs, weighing the present value of additional...

This paper analyzes the effects that differential tax treatment of married and single individuals has on marriage behavior, using a modified version of the two-sided search model of Burdett and Wright (1998). The main results are the following: i) although an increase in the "marriage tax"...

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) expansion in 1993 substantially increases the maximum credits available to a family with two or more children compared to a family with one child and a family with no children. Using national survey data and this differential increase in the maximum credits,...

The effectiveness of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) of benefiting low-income families depends on its economic incidence. The EITC is more effective if its incidence is captured by the worker. Interest in whether the EITC incidence is captured by the worker or the employer follows from the...

We develop, apply, and test a new measure of the marriage tax: the reduction in future spending from getting married. Our measure is a comprehensive, actuarial (expected) present value. It incorporates all major and most minor US tax and benefit programs, weighing the present value of additional...