Why should marriage change your tax rates?

Additional DetailsTrinitytough: Why? Why should you get a tax break for marrying? or any change?...

Sven_Bergstrom	Married couples ought to receive a "tax break", i.e. reduction, for the simple reason that married couples are more likley to have children and children are the lifeblood of every nation. In countries like Germany and Japan, where it is economically challenging to have children, the birth rates are down and the nation's lifeblood is thinning. A tax incentive is a viable solution, at least in my humble opinion.
catnip	Marriage changes your taxes, and so does having children. For some reason, the more children you choose to have (and yes, with all the options, having children is a choice today) the less taxes you have to pay. So the unmarried, childless people are unfairly always paying a lot more, because for some reason the government thinks we don't need to pay for rent, bills, food, etc.
Chris M	I must agree. Marriage should have no impact on how much a person is taxed.
conster monster x3	When married, you have to support your spouse as well as yourself. You also have to prepare for a family. Tax breaks help promote stability in a marriage. Most divorces are because of money.
Commenta Storm	It's probably some old school mostly Christian influenced way of encouraging people to be and stay married(creating the family unit), old school notions of what family is and should be; thus they literally benefit from it(taxes, , write-offs, credits..etc.). Especially when you consider that most states do not allow benefits or tax write-offs for life partners who are homosexual because it goes against any Christian notion of what family really is. * Who wrote most laws in this country? Who created the system that exists and who came to this country to inititate the creation of America? Mostly, Christians. Therefore it stands to reason that there is a major Christian influence over tax and marriage laws. Just as there is with many other American traditions(holidays, the dollar bill, star-spangled banner and other historical anthems etc..) *This is not my personal stance on the whole family/gay/marriage/tax thing but an analysis of what is...what already exists.
racingcowboy58	You don't really get a tax break for being married. It's the personal deductions and income level that dictate taxes. If a single person is making $30,000 a year, and he gets married to a person with no income, it is much like two people earning $15,000 a year. Yet, if two single people earning $30,000 a year get married, the total income is $60,000. They will pay taxes near that of the two people had they filed separate.
OPM	Not all people get a break, some take a penalty. The simplest example of both is a husband and wife, where he works and she does not. She did not pay taxes but had an unused standard deduction. The utilization of the standard deduction through a combined return is a break. On the other hand, imagine both are high paid attorneys. Both were utilizing their standard deduction, but their combined income could take them into a higher bracket hence the second person is taxed at a much higher rate than if single.
StarCy	hmm, well I don't know, I don't think it should change at all. Two people are married.. why should taxes change?. I just think it's weird, or even alittle stupid.
hsueh001	Wait, Does anyone who's answered this question truly understand. Being married HURTS your tax rate. Has anyone ever tried to work out the advantages/disadvantages of being married vs single vs a single parent. 1. Let's say you're two single people who are driven and work hard. Each of you own a house, which mean each of you can take a full mortgage interest deduction, easily amounting to tens of thousands of dollars in deductions. Once you're married you can't take deductions for both houses! You loose thousands of dollars in deductions just being married! 2. The government does not promote MARRIAGE, in fact, with as much as the government pays YOU WANT TO HAVE CHILDREN but not be MARRIED!!!!!. Say I have 4 children. Being married I can take a standard deduction on the 4 children as a married individual. If I'm DIVORCED and my wife takes 2 of the kids and I take 2 of the kids, BOTH OF US CAN FILE HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD!!!! With 2 kids each we may qualify for more EIC (Earned income credit) and get EIC credit for all 4 of our kids (2 per parent). As a married couple the maximum I can take is a credit of 2 EIC if I even qualify. There's lots more examples of how being married hurts you more than it help! I don't think marriage should change your tax rate, but it does in the MOST HARMFUL way. And if you do get married, and you want to save money GET DIVORCED! It's the American Tax way!!!
kobacker59	Because it promotes stability (in theory).
answerman288	Because you need to keep more money to raise your family
lightningfastfords	uncle sam sees two people that can make him more money ! 1+1=2 times i guess
nora7142@verizon.net	i dont think you should . I believe a flat 10 per cent with no deduct for anything would be fair to all
IWIU	You don't get a tax break for marrying. You pay more if you marry. It's a rip off, not fair at all. We are lucky that Bush is giving us a break on it, but when he's out of there, we will have to pay more tax, because the next president probably will take it away from us.
SUNSH!NE©	its probobly cuz marrige
bsfry	The government chooses to use tax incentives to encourage people to behave in a desired way. Simple as that. As far as "should", well, that's up for debate.
petproudinc	It shouldn't give you a tax break! That's for sure. If that's the benefit no wonder people support same sex marriages- just for a tax break and insurance breaks too!
mehran_a	You should get a tax break, simply because you're sharing a lot of items, therefore your foot print in some instances is less than simply 1 + 1 = 2, as you do activities together, such as driving together, eating and other activities..so, you should get a break. :)
slongholio	Because most of the people in charge of making the laws are married, so it benefits them, and politicians are always in favor of passing laws that benfit themselves.
theplayeroutthereallyongnamedog	NO
Pauly	It may depend on the tax bracket that the couple is in. I did an experiment this year on our taxes. We just got married in 2005, so I wanted to see what the impact had on either one of our taxes combined and individually. When I changed my status in Turbo Tax from "single" to "married, filing separately", my taxes increased by $500. That was without the application knowing what my wife made last year. Her taxes also went up when she was filing in the same way. When I put our taxes together and filed "Married, Filing jointly", the taxes didn't change much. What I think is unfair is the standard deduction for a married couple is not twice that of a single person filing. That is another place where there is a "marriage tax". It didn't effect us much since I have deductions that far outnumber the standard deduction.
Owoade	since marriage increases my allowances, so be it, marriage should therefore change the tax rates
Argus 420	It shouldn't, but it does because we are a Christian nation that encourages people to get married with a monetary incentive given to them thru their taxes.
darkangel0fdeath	I like ur pic its funni :D
gremco_gremco	Getting married changes everything!!!! Why not your taxes too.
tresarose	It shouldn't. And, we should just have a flat rate.
bmwdriver11	The government likes to give tax incentives for things it sees as "good". That is why you get some tax breaks for buying a house or for giving to charity. Because people get this break, they are then encouraged to go and buy houses and give to their local Red Cross (or what ever). That is why you might want to give a break to married folks- because the nuclear family is good for kids, and statistically leads to less crime, etc etc. However, there has been a Marriage penalty for many years, that has been recently eliminated. I agree with this- I am undecided if any "breaks" should be given for marriage, but I certainly dont see why married people should pay more than 2 seperate single people!
Tsmoove	I didnt know tax rates changed because you were married.
anchorNY	Beacuse it changes everything else
<*}}}>{	Taxes pay for many things... like schools, utilities, communications subsidy etc etc etc... now the tax for being married usually is a benefit to the taxpayer because its one household (usually) that is paying taxes, vice two seperate entities. Now that doesnt mean that you get off scott free, but it lowers it per capita household and its actuated by the entity, vice the number of people. Try married filing seperate, and its just like being single again.
trinitytough	It shouldn't raise them. If anything, you should gat a tax break for being married.