The marriage tax penalty is when a married couple filing a joint tax return pays more taxes than they would pay if each could file separately as a single person. You might incur the marriage penalty if you and your spouse both have earned incomes and your combined income places you in a higher tax bracket than the tax brackets corresponding to your individual incomes. If only one of you has earned income, you may pay less tax than if you and your spouse could each file as a single individual.

The marriage penalty originated in 1969 when the U.S. Congress attempted to eliminate what was then a tax advantage for married taxpayers over single taxpayers. However, by 1996, 42% of married couples paid more taxes than they would have if filing single. The average marriage tax penalty, at that time, was about $1,400. Since then, there have been numerous attempts to reduce or eliminate the marriage penalty.

The proportion of couples affected by the marriage penalty varies with changes in the tax rates. You are most likely to incur the marriage penalty if you and your spouse have near-equal incomes and are in the middle-income range. Higher- and lower-income earners are less likely to incur the marriage penalty.

In 2003 Congress reduced the marriage penalty by raising the standard deduction for couples to twice that for single taxpayers and raising the allowable taxable income for couples in the 15% tax bracket to twice that for single taxpayers. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provided additional marriage penalty relief for 2009 and 2010 through the earned income tax credit.

Learn more about the marriage tax penalty at the Web site of the Administration for Children & Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.