Horizontal equity ignores that dual-earner couples are disproportionately black and get fewer breaks.

Evidence

When I looked at my parents’ marriage, however, I began to realize that what I learned about horizontal equity was incorrect, or at least incomplete. Income and circumstances are not the same: A married couple with one working spouse, an investment banker, who makes 100,000 is not in the same circumstances as a nurse and a plumber who each earn 50,000. When viewed through a racial lens, we see that the latter situation is more likely for black taxpayers than white ones—and worse, the tax break goes to the single-earner couple, not the dual-earner couple. Our tax policy does all this in the name of horizontal equity, with no consideration that when you look beyond total income, the concept is just plain wrong! — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 42

Categorization

• DEFINE: Horizontal equity principle defined and then shown inadequate because it equates income with circumstances.
• QUESTION: Exactly which tax break favors single-earner over dual-earner couples — presumably a marriage penalty/bonus — is teased but not yet named here; worth pinning down.