The bachelor tax – what it costs in taxes to be single

[coccinelle]

It can be also a married person tax depending on your circumstances. If both spouses make similar amounts then they are getting taxed more as a married couple, because the bracket threshold for a married couple are less than 2x that for an individual. I don't understand why everyone is not taxed as an individual, regardless of marital status.

[knallfrosch]

> I don't understand why everyone is not taxed as an individual, regardless of marital status.

Because married couples form a household and it allows them to share child care and work as they see fit.

If you tax individuals, you're encouraging both to earn the same amount of money.

If you tax couples, it encourages the higher earner to keep working, thus you have a higher overall productivity.

Thus you have freedom and higher overall productivity in favor of shared tax burden.

[zeroonetwothree]

Taxing as individuals is kind of unfair to single earner households, since the earner has to support more people it seems reasonable to tax them less. You could maybe accomplish a similar thing with deductions but there will still be some weird cases

[stackskipton]

Tax policy is also used a method of encourage certain types of behavior and discourage others. EV Tax Credits and Solar Tax Credits are example of encouraging starting up industries which we need to assist with climate change in economic powered method.

At a broad level, offering benefits for marriage solves political problem, married people tend to vote so need to be catered to. It also solves societal one, marriage tends to be better at extremely broad strokes for society. Married Couples live longer, commit less crime, kids in married households generally have better outcomes and so forth. So politicians in United States decided to incentive it.

[antonymoose]

I just checked the Federal rates and they’re pretty much exactly double from single to married.

Are you in a funky state with bad tax policy?

[pavon]

TIL. All the tax bracket thresholds for married filing jointly are exactly double that of married filing separately, which are the same as single taxpayer, except the threshold for top-most bracket where it switches between 35% and 37%, which is wildly different in favor of single taxpayers. Weird.

[anamax]

A marriage differential is a mathematical consequence of progressive marginal rates and community property (specifically the ability to shift income between spouses).

To put it another way, eliminating the marriage differential[1] in all cases requires giving up progressive marginal rates or community property.

Which one do you want to give up?

[1] The current US brackets and deductions taxes some married couples more than comparable pairs of individuals, taxes some less, and is basically a wash in other cases. It's easy to move couples between the first two groups and you can move some of each to the third, you can't move all of them.

[wkaisertexas]

What is very strange is that some states let you file jointly to save money on federal income taxes, but file separately for state income taxes and others do not.

Taxation is a strange, mixed-up world.

[scotty79]

The calulator doesn't support negative savings. The color is green all the time and even the minus sign is stripped from the large font number.

Try 500k both

[mahirsaid]

if its not more evident that taxes are to benefit whatever it is and not what's important. The complex rules that are based on 0 logic.

[junar]

List of caveats I can think of:

* Covers regular federal income tax only. Does not cover any of the taxes on Schedule 2, nor any state/local taxes.

* Assumes both individuals take the federal standard deduction as Single (not Head of Household).

* Assumes no other credits or deductions.

As a result, this can potentially understate marriage penalties for dual-income couples with kids.

https://taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-are-marriage-...

[dmoy]

Also assumes no income based repayment on debt

[smeej]

I don't get it. I keep getting $0. Maybe I'm not using high enough numbers? I used the example of $100k each, or then $100k and $80k, which is on the high side of the median where I live and the single vs. married end up the same.

[stackskipton]

Marriage benefit comes into play when couples have disparity in income. If you are both at similar incomes, it won't change much. However, punch in 200k and 50k and see the difference.

[wkaisertexas]

You are in the same tax bracket at $80 and $100k, so the amount that you would pay would be identical.

Switching tax brackets is a categorical change which needs to occur before there is a difference.

[robrtsql]

It cost me over $3000 to be married on my 2024 taxes.

I used to be able to declare my house, and my parents' house (I own it). Because of these two things, I have been able to itemize my deductions. In 2024, because I got married, the itemized 'threshold' to reach was higher so I had to take the standard deduction, which ended up costing me a lot more in taxes. It's making me ask questions like "is it worth $3000 every year forever to stay married?"

Your mileage may vary!

[hellojesus]

I had the same conundrum. It costs me far more to be married than to not be married because of the itemized deduction loses. I used to be able to itemize about $21k. But now that I'm married, the standard $24k wins out, which means our household went from $33k deductions to $24k, and our effective rate ends up being about 30%, so that's about the $3k your are penalized. Plus state income taxes and county surcharges on income above $200k at 1%.

It makes me terribly sad each and every year. And each and every year I have to reconsume stories about the man that flew his plane into an IRS building, and the guy from NJ that threatened an IRS agent on a voicemail and then called back immediately and apologized but still got 12 months. Every year I make a decision to not throw my life away. And every year it's a really tough decision.

[wkaisertexas]

A Federal Tax calculator I made after finding out my tax savings would be $12k if I married my girlfriend.

[vecinu]

Divorce is way more expensive than your savings. I went through this; you save $12-16k/yr for 10 years and if you invest the difference smartly, it's $300k.

Without a prenup, and most don't cover earnings during your marriage anyway (They're hard to keep updated yearly), you're giving away half in California, which can be over $1M if you're a diligent saver and investor. Then if your spouse is REALLY nasty, you'll owe her spousal support that can be thousands per month, depending on your income (and income POTENTIAL), for the rest of her life (after 10 years of marriage in CA).

Any cost savings are completely nullified by divorce if you're a high earner and almost never make sense. Don't get married for tax savings, marry for other reasons and have the most iron-clad prenup you can afford and get your partner to agree to. I promise you, your future self will thank you.

[toast0]

If you stay married for at least ten years, and one spouse has a significantly better social security record, the other spouse can claim spousal benefits if your marriage is still in force or they are unmarried.

Hard to value that though.

[bell-cot]

Depending on circumstances, you might save considerably more in other areas - being covered as a spouse on the other's employer health insurance, reduced car insurance rates, state & local tax savings, ...

[mgaunard]

Tax works differently by country. In many cases there are no mechanism to pool your taxes with your significant other.

[wkaisertexas]

Yep! This post was specific to US federal taxes.

If people find this interesting, I will open-source and allow contributions to support other country's tax systems.

[cratermoon]

It's about to get even worse: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/birth-rate-trump-baby-bonus-1....

[cosmic_cheese]

I wonder how many more failed tiny financial band-aids it will take before governments figure out that moving the needle on birth rate requires that deep systemic issues be addressed.

The most astute observation I've seen on the topic is that in a capitalistic system in which monetary value is assigned to everything, the value of children is deeply negative and therefore they are not desirable. By having children, most couples are putting their stability, wellbeing, and long-term prospects on the line. The opportunity cost is staggering. If more children is the desired outcome, that tradeoff must cease to exist, and a lousy $2k isn't anything remotely close to that.

[throwaway6734]

What's going to get worse? Currently parents get absolutely shafted by the tax system as the tax credits are next to nothing relative to the amount of time, effort, and capital it takes to raise a child.

Currently the cost of raising children is privatized while the benefits are socialized.

[hamdingers]

Seems about as likely to materialize as every other handout this administration has promised.

How's everyone enjoying their tariff rebate checks? Any servicemembers care to share how they spent their warrior dividend?

[fragmede]

Zero comments on this linking to diamond rings? Plug in $100,000 and $0, and it suggests some specific diamond rings of roughly that price. I hope that an affiliate link!

[wkaisertexas]

Those are not affiliate links.

I just found the idea of the ring being paid for by the IRS funny.

[zeroonetwothree]

If you have to pay NIIT it’s fairly disadvantageous to be married.

[wkaisertexas]

If NIIT significantly outweighs the increase in your standard deduction, you probably already have a tax professional for questions.

[adeelk93]

Idk how you can have a tax calculator around marriage without considering that SALT caps are shared, and not doubled, when married

[hellojesus]

This is a very good point. I pay more in state income taxes than the $10k cap, which means I don't get any real estate tax write offs. My now wife completely lost her $10k salt deduction after the marriage.

I have hatred for life.

[dh2022]

The biggest item on SALT is the real estate taxes and mortgage interest expense. A household has only one address - and thus it makes sense to have tax deduction for just one real estate/ mortgage interest expense. As such it makes sense to share the SALT cap - just like sharing the home.

(also the fact that biggest beneficiaries of SALT are states either high housing costs and these states tend to be Democrat leaning states made it easy for Trump to cap the SALT deduction in his 2018 tax cuts)

[silexia]

The best thing I have done in my life was get married and have kids. And money has nothing to do with that happiness.

[Yizahi]

My single's tax is approximately two monthly netto salaries per year.

[stego-tech]

I appreciate this, but now do one for non-traditional, multi-income households.

I’d like solid numbers of how much I’m overpaying to do the work the government refuses to (sheltering folks, ensuring nutritious foodstuffs).

[alphazard]

Okay now factor in the probability of divorce, and the amount you get to keep afterwards, and discount it to present value, vs. paying more taxes and keeping it all. Also remember that you typically lose half of income forever, not just wealth in a divorce.

[bigfishrunning]

It is important to understand the consequences of breaking any contract you enter into, including marriage. Luckily, you're not stuck with default terms to that contract, and if you're not comfortable with them pre-nuptual agreements can modify those terms.

[Ancalagon]

Not sure why this is being downvoted. It should be a very real consideration at least in the US.

[antisthenes]

What a terrible UX this site is.

Don't make me enter the number or click the button every time.

Just give me a slider for both incomes and show me the result right away.

[knowitnone3]

now what does it cost a man to be married and divorced - the house, half of everything, kids