The 2017 act’s marriage-penalty relief mainly benefits the wealthiest couples

Evidence

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated the marriage penalty in the rate structure for all households, except those facing the highest marginal tax rate and those eligible for the EITC. But here’s why I don’t think it’s a meaningful step toward true reform: It did away with the marriage penalty by increasing the marriage bonus for the Henry Seaborns of the world. I believe it’s simply a case of history repeating itself: Just as the marriage bonus was created in response to a new tax burden imposed on America’s wealthiest white couples, the increasing number of white married couples paying the marriage penalty was the impetus for the 2017 act’s marriage-penalty relief. So once again, the wealthiest (and likely whitest) couples get a bonus. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 151

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader thesis that facially race-neutral tax provisions favor white households — relevant to the reader’s goal of naming four specific provisions.