Submitted by Jim Kucera, Aug 1, 2008 14:10

For 2007, the wife and I would have paid $1,680.30 less in income tax if we each could have filed as "single." We filed as "joint." Filing "married filing separately" would have been even worse! One thing that could simply be done to really eliminate the marriage penalty would be to replace "single" and "married filing separately" with "individual." Think about it — no reference to marital status. For those married couples who insist on filing "joint," a lot more would have to be done such as: go to a flat tax (yeah!), eliminate the "reduction to deductions" and "reduction to exemptions" worksheets, and eliminate the AMT.

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