Income Tax for Married Couples

Re “Don’t Penalize--or Sub- sidize--Marriage,” Commentary, March 11: The marriage “penalty” in income tax is an illusion. The economics of our society is based on the couple. Hotels are routinely priced on a double occupancy basis. On cruises and travel packages, singles pay the “single supplement,” which is a euphemism for “singles pay double.”

As everyone says these days, “You need two incomes to live middle class.” If, as a single person, I want to buy a house, I buy for two--I pay the whole mortgage. I once calculated that just having someone share my housing costs would be equivalent to earning $14,000 gross more a year.

In order to live middle class, I have had to bring in that second income myself. As that additional money is all marginal income, I am lucky to net 50% of it, after federal and state income taxes and Social Security payments.

It’s time to start talking about the “single penalty.”

MARCIA J. BATES

Van Nuys

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Bartlett writes: “It is not apparent what social benefit is achieved by subsidizing marriage per se.” This statement is misguided in two ways. First, marriage is more than simply a personal lifestyle choice. As the main social institution that links fathers to families, connects children to their parents and grandparents and creates the optimal environment for nurturing the next generation, marriage is a vital social good requiring broad societal support.

Second, the income-splitting reform that Bartlett opposes--which would permit married couples to split or share equally their joint income at tax time--has nothing to do with “subsidizing” marriage. The question is why the tax code treats marriage worse than virtually any other form of cooperative economic endeavor.

For example, sole business proprietors who become joint partners are allowed to share their income fully for purposes of allocating tax burdens, largely because it would be impossible for tax collectors to calculate fairly the diverse ways in which the different partners contribute to the joint venture. Similarly, both husband and wife, whether they work for pay or not, contribute in myriad ways to the productivity of the marriage partnership.

DAVID BLANKENHORN

President

Institute for American Values

New York