Angie Craig: “They originally planned their wedding date for late this autumn this year, but then friends actually started asking…”

“They originally planned their wedding date for late this autumn this year, but then friends actually started asking them, "What about taxes?" So they did an interesting thing; they sat down and computed their marriage penalty. Guess what. They found out their combined incomes together as a married couple would cause them to have to pay out of their pockets an additional $1,400 more than they are currently paying as single people working on our two staffs. We are talking about average earners. In fact, the marriage penalty for our young Idaho-Minnesota couple is just about exactly the average-sized marriage penalty American couples are paying across the country, about $1,400. That could be the cost of a honeymoon or a wedding gown or part of a college education, if properly saved and invested for children who might come as a result of this union. It is critically important we deal with this issue. Yes, they have delayed their wedding only a few weeks, but I asked my friend from Minnesota, does the Federal Government have any business forcing any kind of a decision such as this on families and couples?”