Word: taxingly
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Like it or not, baby boomers get pretty much whatever they want. They've got the numbers. They've got the votes. Now the generation that insisted on competitive pay for women wants to shield part of that pay from the tax man by eliminating the so-called marriage penalty. You can bet boomers will get their way this time too. And in this case they should, this boomer says. The basic flaw in the current system is so absurd that something must be done...
...marriage penalty is a peculiar "tax" levied mainly on married couples in which the husband and wife have similar incomes. Once relatively rare, pay parity in two-earner homes has become fairly common in the '90s--and there's the rub. Such households often pay more federal income tax married than if the two earners had remained single and just moved in together. How's that for Uncle Sam walking in on your love life...
Consider a husband and wife, each of whom earns $30,000 a year. This year the couple would owe $7,795 in federal income tax. They would owe $880 less if they divorced but stayed together. That's because married people get a smaller standard deduction: $7,100 per couple, vs. $4,250 per single ($8,500 together). Married couples also move to the next tax bracket quicker: after typical deductions, they can earn $42,350 in the 15% bracket before further income is taxed at 28%; singles can earn $25,350 each ($50,700 together) before crossing that threshold...
...think the solution would be easy: treat all taxpayers as though they were single. But this is the tax code. Nothing is simple. That treatment would remove a so-called marriage bonus now enjoyed by 25 million "dominant earners." A single person making $60,000 pays about $11,599 to the IRS. But if that person marries, and the spouse stays home with the kids, the tax bite drops about...
...their barricades along key rail lines Friday and more state employees were poised to walk out. "IMF officials believe the crisis will force Moscow to undertake reforms which would leave it better off in the long run -- but only if Russia can make it that long," says Meier. Tax reform has persuaded the IMF to release a delayed $670 million installment of a long-term loan, but Russia wants a $10 billion to $15 billion rescue plan. "The bailout has become the key to recovery," says Meier. "It's a psychological thing -- investors are waiting for the bailout to restore...