Single-earner white families get lower taxes than equal-earning black families under progressive rates

Evidence

Even if tax law were to tax both families’ imputed income, Henry and Charlotte’s taxable income would be greater than James and Dottie’s simply because one person is focused on home life full-time, while the others are working at least forty hours per week outside of the home. True horizontal equity would mean that James and Dottie’s tax bill should never be equal to but always less than Henry and Charlotte’s. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 106

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the one-corner vs. two-corner (breadwinner/caregiver) marriage tax penalty literature and the marriage penalty debates from the 1980s-2000s.