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| WILSON VOTES TO PROVIDE NEW MEXICANS RELIEF FROM THE MARRIAGE PENALTY |
February 10, 2000 |
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Independent Analysis Shows More Than 143,000 New Mexico Couples Pay More In Taxes Just Because They Are Married
WASHINGTON, DC -- This afternoon, Congresswoman Heather Wilson voted to put an end to the so-called marriage tax penalty for more than 143,000 married couples in New Mexico and 51,894 in the First Congressional District alone. Wilson was a co-sponsor and leader in the effort to eliminate the marriage penalty as the number one priority for tax relief. The “Marriage Tax Penalty Relief Act of 2000” (H.R. 6) would provide $182.3 billion in tax relief over 10 years, by increasing the standard deduction for married couples from $7,350 to $8,800, which is twice the standard deduction for a single person. It would also expand the lowest, 15 percent tax bracket to double that of the corresponding bracket for single filers. The House passed the “Marriage Tax Penalty Relief Act of 2000” by a vote of 268 to 158.
“It’s about time we started honoring marriage and not taxing it,” said Wilson. “On average, married New Mexicans pay $1,400 more per year in taxes just because they are married. That’s not right and we need to change it.”
According to the Congressional Budget Office and an independent analysis by the Heritage Foundation, 143, 438 New Mexicans pay an average of $1,400 in higher taxes due to the marriage penalty. “For working families in New Mexico, this tax relief can mean enough money to pay for a semester at UNM, three months of groceries, or a year of car insurance payments,” Wilson said.
The Heritage Foundation analysis determined that the number of married taxpayers affected by marriage penalties stems from the inequity in standard deductions, taxable income thresholds for marginal tax rates for couples, and those who lost the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) by filing a joint return. The report found that the vast majority of couples affected by a marriage penalty are two-earner families in which the secondary earner`s wages were a significant portion of the family`s income, thereby subjecting the couple`s combined income to taxation at a higher marginal rate.
The report also found that married families receiving the EITC suffered a partial or complete loss of the tax credit as opposed to single taxpayers of equal income. Additionally, the marriage penalty is a tax bias against the spouse with lower earnings, which means that it is disproportionately a tax bias against women taxpayers and married working families.
“It is flat wrong that poorer working families and women are forced to pay this penalty,” Wilson said. “We should be encouraging marriage and helping poor working families pursue the American Dream. Yet, our tax code promotes just the opposite. It’s time to end the marriage penalty tax.”
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