Supporting 1 person on x income is harder than supporting two people on 2x income. Put simply, a couple does not need two stoves, and any shared trip is less expencive etc. There are a few edge cases at the individual level for things like end of life care and taxes, but the overall economic bennifits are huge.
It's a generally around a 1/2 a % penalty which is swamped by other benefits.
AKA 2 incomes of $87,850 x2 = 175 700 vs extra 879$ in taxes.
At extreme incomes of say 20+M a year or below 18k it's actually far less than 1/2%.
However, there are huge benefits for SS for being a married couple even more so if there is a large income disparity, so on average if they plan ahead Marriage tends to lower taxes. On top of lower expenses which enable better tax avoidance mechanisms.
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Supporting 1 person on x income is harder than supporting two people on 2x income. Put simply, a couple does not need two stoves, and any shared trip is less expencive etc. There are a few edge cases at the individual level for things like end of life care and taxes, but the overall economic bennifits are huge.
On the other hand, 1 person with x income pays less income tax than 2 people with 2x income.
The US has joint filing for married couples so that's not the case, whereas it would be in e.g. the UK.
It most certainly is the case in the US... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_penalty
It's a generally around a 1/2 a % penalty which is swamped by other benefits.
AKA 2 incomes of $87,850 x2 = 175 700 vs extra 879$ in taxes.
At extreme incomes of say 20+M a year or below 18k it's actually far less than 1/2%.
However, there are huge benefits for SS for being a married couple even more so if there is a large income disparity, so on average if they plan ahead Marriage tends to lower taxes. On top of lower expenses which enable better tax avoidance mechanisms.
Irrelevant.