Marriage Penalty Elimination. This bill would eliminate the "marriage penalty" in the income tax laws by the year 2009 and double the per child income tax credit to $1,000 by the year 2006. Representative Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.) explained that the bill was needed because the "current Tax Code punishes married couples where both partners work by driving them into a higher tax bracket. The marriage penalty taxes the income of the second wage earner at a much higher rate than if they were taxed as an individual…." The current tax code, said Gilman, "penalizes marriage and encourages couples to live together without any formal legal commitment to each other."
The House passed H.R. 6 on March 29, 2001 by a vote of 282-144 (Roll Call 75). We have assigned pluses to the yeas.
