Tax Code’s ‘Marriage Penalty’

Re “GOP Seeks to Put ‘Marriage Tax’ on Rocks,” June 4:

The tax law as it stands today rewards families in which one spouse makes appreciably more than the other. The many two-paycheck families where husband and wife bring home equal amounts suffer at the hands of the IRS. We ought to register (and appropriately tax) the real variety of marriage and partnering arrangements we create. We ought to fairly tax nonresidential co-parents so that each gets a tax break for the child they are co-raising. (Interestingly, alimony is recognized by the IRS while child support payments on the part of a noncustodial parent who does not claim his/her child as a dependent are not.)

Perhaps the growing number of gay people who are fashioning “marriages” outside of the law are the real pioneers in creating separate contracts for home and property ownership, wills and inheritance, dependent children and romance. Already the provisions of our society’s standard marriage contracts are seen as too inclusive for those who tag on prenuptial agreements and as inaccurate by polygamists and polyamorists who would like to publicly express their commitment to more than one person.

LEANNA WOLFE

Los Angeles

* The only thing that these “marriage penalty” advocates need to change is their perspective. They want the benefits that society affords a couple but then want to be treated as individuals at tax time. If they took one look at the marginal tax rate tables, they would see that it is the single person who is penalized. A better solution would be to eliminate the “breeders break” that certain married people enjoy. Then their tax bills wouldn’t look as bad in comparison.

DAVID HAWKINS

Riverside