The phaseout range runs from MAGI of $112,000-$127,000 for singles and from $178,000-$188,000 for married couples filing
joint returns.
In principle, the
joint return simplified tax filing for married couples "whose combined income was below the amount that would trigger the surtax rate." (30) However, when rates significantly increased with the United States' entry into World War I, (31) filing
joint returns became considerably less appealing to high-income taxpayers.
For
joint returns, the statewide median income was $65,772, an increase of 1.1 percent over 2009.
* Tax advisers can also educate their married individual tax clients about joint and several liability and, where appropriate, suggest filing separate rather than
joint returns.
EGTRRA 2001 increased the size of the 15% bracket for married couples filing
joint returns to twice the size of the corresponding bracket for unmarried individuals filing single returns, phasing in the increase over four years, beginning in 2005.
"Jackson Hole bigmouths swear Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart took blood tests and got licenses so (it) could be they already are, or soon will be, filing
joint returns," the Daily Express quoted New York Post as saying.
Prior to 1918,
joint returns were not allowed and each spouse was required to file his and her return separately.
Joint Returns and Surviving Spouse $239,950 - $362,450
In the ease of
joint returns, primary and secondary taxpayers were considered separately.
According to Internal Revenue Service spokesman Anthony Burke, same-sex couples are barred from filing
joint returns because "the determination of marital status for federal income tax purpose is made in accordance with the law of the state of the marital domicile."
Couples especially benefit from
joint returns when one spouse earns a disproportionately greater amount of income than the other spouse.
The law also expanded the phase-out ranges to $50,000-65,000 for single taxpayers and to $100,000-130,000 for married taxpayers filing
joint returns.
