"Money, Sex, and Tax Politics: Developments in Tax Avoidance and Marital Tax Returns, 1913-1948," explores how and why tax policy is formed. One aspect of tax policy, namely the choice between individuals and families as the tax unit, is used as a case study to shed light on what drives the development of the federal income tax. Throughout the period under review, the progressive nature of the tax system gave married couples an economic incentive to shift ownership of family income between spouses so that each reported half, and thus more of the family's income could be taxed in lower tax brackets, thereby creating a marriage bonus. In 1948 Congress effectively chose the family as the tax unit when it allowed all couples to split income without regard to the income's ownership attributes. Most scholars who have looked at this issue have focused on the impact of the 1948 legislation, particularly as it affected wives. The focus of this dissertation, however, is on the forces behind the evolution in this policy. Between 1913 and 1948, the pressure applied by the American government's structure, primarily the separation of powers and federalism, had a direct, often decisive effect on the law's development.;This dissertation demonstrates that incentives created in the different branches and levels of government by various policy choices at times dampened policy formation, particularly when prospective choices composed a zero-sum game and a transparent one at that. With respect to the tax unit, either married taxpayers with one-earner, married taxpayers with two-earners, or single taxpayers benefited relative to the others in the shifting of tax burdens, and it was clear to taxpayers who were benefited and who were burdened, even if only in hindsight. Unsurprisingly, legislators and other government officials tended to be reluctant to take decisive action in these circumstances. Policymakers, in fact, delayed or tried to shift responsibility for these difficult, inevitably unpopular decisions to other branches or levels of government. As a result, policy choices, when made, tended to result less from well thought-out policy objectives than from immediate political or economic needs, often producing unintended consequences.
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