The distributional impact of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003: a longitudinal study of the marriage penalty tax

摘要

This dissertation quantifies the magnitude of the marriage penalty tax andmeasures its distributional effects on the general population. Estimates of the marriagepenalty tax were calculated based on the effects of the most recent tax act on alltaxpayers according to class of income. The study measures the distribution of themarriage penalty tax using income tax data for the year 2000 and projects changes thatresult from the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. Data foranalysis was obtained from the Internal Revenue Service??s Statistics of Income (SOI)database and the Census Bureau??s year 2000 Current Population Survey (CPS) database.On signing the new tax act, President Bush said that the current tax code frequently taxescouples more after they get married and that the marriage tax contradicts Americanvalues and any reasonable sense of fairness. However, even after passage of the new taxact, results of the study indicate that while the marriage penalty tax is reduced, itcontinues to negatively affect the American family.