No one likes to pay taxes, but secondary earners — often married working women — are punished the most under the present tax system.
Their income is added on to that of their spouse, often pushing both of them into a higher tax bracket. That discourages some married women who have taken time off to look after children from reentering the labor force. Two Republican candidates, Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio, have proposed different ways of fixing the problem.
Bush’s plan, released this week, would allow second earners to take their wage-and-salary income and file as single earners. They would not have to file as “married filing jointly” or “married filing separately,” which results in a higher rate. As written, no matter what their spouses’ incomes, their initial tax rates would be zero.
Read the full article at Economics 21: How Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio would help women