Does it pay to say ‘I do’? Marriage bonuses and penalties across the EU

Abstract

We analyse the different fiscal treatment of married and cohabiting couples across all EU Member States using microsimulation methods. Our article highlights important differences across EU countries’ tax–benefit systems, where seven countries show substantial bonuses for married couples and four exhibit marriage penalties. On a micro level, we find that these marriage bonuses/penalties differ substantially across household types and income. From a policy point of view, our results suggest that the abolishment of marriage-related tax–benefit components in countries with marriage bonuses would leave some households financially worse off but would increase governments revenues that could be spent to targeted support of specific groups. From both an equity and efficiency point of view, this abolishment would be desirable.

Uncovering what matters: Family life course aspects and personal wealth in late working age

“…This marital wealth advantage has been attributed to a range of intertwined, wealth-enhancing contextual and normative factors. First, depending on the institutional context, married spouses may benefit from favourable tax rates next to other advantages such as joint insurances and pensions (Christl et al, 2023). Germany is one of the most prominent examples of marital tax benefits with its joint taxation and full income splitting (Ehegattensplitting) (Buslei & Wrohlich, 2014).…”

Mapping redistribution in terms of family: A European comparison

“…It has been shown, though, that countries differ in the redistribution to different family forms. There are, for example, differences in the income support to lone-parent families (Bradshaw and Finch, 2002; Van Lancker et al, 2015), to income-dependent partners (interpreted as a relic of the former ‘male breadwinner’ regime) (Montanari, 2000), or in rights granted on the grounds of marital status (Christl et al, 2021). The results of these studies show, first, that redistribution in terms of family has been used to privilege certain types of families, and second, that in shifting the research focus from redistribution in terms of workers to redistribution in terms of family, societies might be clustered quite differently (Shaver and Bradshaw, 1995).…”

The male marital earnings premium contextualized: Longitudinal evidence from the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom

“…Thus, we contribute to the economic literature on the marriage tax and the sociological literature on the male marital wage premium. Unlike most previous economic literature on the marriage tax, we can observe within-unit changes as men transition into marriage rather than comparing the tax burden of married men to unmarried men from a cross-sectional perspective (Christl et al, 2023;Immervoll et al, 2009). Yet, contrasting the sociological male marital premium literature, we address the relevance of the institutional context by focusing on net rather than gross earnings.…”