An article by Professor Marjorie Kornhauser, “Wedded to the Joint Return: Culture and the Persistence of the Marital Unit in the American Income Tax,” has been published in the current issue of Theoretical Inquiries in Law.

Kornhauser writes that, unlike most developed nations, the United States uses the marital couple as the basic taxable unit for its income tax. She explores the connection between the retention of the marital unit in tax and distinctively American conceptions of marriage, religion and taxation.

To read the article, click here.

Kornhauser is Director of the Tax Literacy Project. Her research focuses on the intersection of federal income taxation and society, and explores the philosophical, social, political, gendered and historical aspects of taxation.