The Tax Code Is Made for Tradwives. Here’s How Much It Punishes Dual-Earning Couples

Putting your taxes together, you may have noticed that many details of your personal life change how much you pay. Are you married? Do you have kids? Do you pay for child care, or does one parent stay home?

These details and their accompanying policies are, essentially, the tax code’s answer to the “mommy wars” between working mothers and their stay-at-home counterparts, providing at least a little of something to everyone: better tax brackets for this, a credit for that. It can be hard for an individual taxpayer to figure out what they owe–and even harder for the concerned citizen to figure out how it all adds up across society and which types of families receive the most favorable treatment.

In a new report for the Manhattan Institute, I took a shot at adding it up. I wrote a computer program that simulates how different types of families are taxed over the course of their lives. With admittedly generous simplifying assumptions (such as that these couples live their entire lives in the year 2022, Groundhog Day-style), it illustrates how tax burdens change with marital status, children, and income.

Continue reading the entire piece here at Fortune (paywall)

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Robert VerBruggen is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here. Based on an upcoming report.

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