IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tul/wpaper/1402.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Revisiting the Income Tax Effects of Legalizing Same-sex Marriages

Author

Listed:
  • James Alm

    (Department of Economics, Tulane University)

  • J. Sebastian Leguizamon

    (Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University)

  • Susane Leguizamon

    (Department of Economics, Western Kentucky University)

Abstract

In this paper, we estimate the impacts on income tax collections of legalizing same-sex marriage. We utilize new individual-level data sources to estimate the federal income tax consequences of legalizing same-sex marriages. These data sources also allow us to estimate the impact of legalization on state income tax collections. We find that 23 states would realize a net fiscal benefit from legalization, while 21 states w ould experience a decline in revenue. The potential (annual) changes in state tax revenue range from negative $29 million in California to positive $16 million in New York. At the federal level, our estimates suggest an overall reduction in revenues, ranging from a potential loss of $187 million to $580 million. Overall, we find that the federal and state impacts are quite modest. We also find that our estimates are only marginally affected by alternative assumptions about how many same-sex couples will choose to marry and which partner will claim any children for tax deduction purposes.

Suggested Citation

  • James Alm & J. Sebastian Leguizamon & Susane Leguizamon, 2014. "Revisiting the Income Tax Effects of Legalizing Same-sex Marriages," Working Papers 1402, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:tul:wpaper:1402
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.tulane.edu/RePEc/pdf/tul1402.pdf
    File Function: First Version, January 2014
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alm, James & Badgett, M.V. Lee & Whittington, Leslie A., 2000. "Wedding Bell Blues: The Income Tax Consequences of Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(2), pages 201-214, June.
    2. Stevenson, Adam, 2012. "The Labor Supply and Tax Revenue Consequences of Federal Same-Sex Marriage Legalization," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(4), pages 783-806, December.
    3. Dan Black & Gary Gates & Seth Sanders & Lowell Taylor, 2000. "Demographics of the gay and lesbian population in the United States: Evidence from available systematic data sources," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(2), pages 139-154, May.
    4. Gale, William G. & Potter, Samara R., 2002. "An Economic Evaluation of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 55(1), pages 133-186, March.
    5. John Graham & Jason Barr, 2008. "Assessing the geographic distribution of same sex and opposite sex couples across the United States: implications for claims of causality between traditional marriage and same sex unions," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 347-367, December.
    6. Daniel Feenberg & Elisabeth Coutts, 1993. "An introduction to the TAXSIM model," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(1), pages 189-194.
    7. Frank F. Furstenberg, 2007. "Should government promote marriage?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 956-960.
    8. Paul R. Amato, 2007. "Strengthening marriage is an appropriate social policy goal," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 952-955.
    9. Gale, William G. & Potter, Samara R., 2002. "An Economic Evaluation of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 55(N. 1), pages 133-186, March.
    10. Dan A. Black & Seth G. Sanders & Lowell J. Taylor, 2007. "The Economics of Lesbian and Gay Families," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 53-70, Spring.
    11. Alm, James & Badgett, M.V. Lee & Whittington, Leslie A., 2000. "Wedding Bell Blues: The Income Tax Consequences of Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 53(n. 2), pages 201-14, June.
    12. Alm, James & Whittington, Leslie A., 1997. "Income taxes and the timing of marital decisions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 219-240, May.
    13. Thomas C. Buchmueller & Christopher S. Carpenter, 2012. "The Effect of Requiring Private Employers to Extend Health Benefit Eligibility to Same‐Sex Partners of Employees: Evidence from California," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 388-403, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Chih-lan Winnie & Denier, Nicole & St-Denis, Xavier & Waite, Sean, 2024. "Studying Individuals in Same-Sex Couples using Longitudinal Administrative Data from Canadian Tax Records: Opportunities and Challenges," SocArXiv j9skr, Center for Open Science.
    2. James Alm, 2017. "Is Economics Useful for Public Policy?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(4), pages 835-854, April.
    3. Joshua J. Miller & Kevin A. Park, 2018. "Same-sex marriage laws and demand for mortgage credit," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 229-254, June.
    4. Elliott Isaac, 2018. "Suddenly Married: Joint Taxation And The Labor Supply Of Same-Sex Married Couples After U.S. v. Windsor," Working Papers 1809, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    5. Elliott Isaac, 2020. "Marriage, Divorce, and Social Safety Net Policy," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(4), pages 1576-1612, April.
    6. James Alm, 2017. "Is Economics Useful for Public Policy?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(4), pages 835-854, April.
    7. Christopher S. Carpenter & Samuel T. Eppink & Gilbert Gonzales & Tara McKay, 2021. "Effects of Access to Legal Same‐Sex Marriage on Marriage and Health," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(2), pages 376-411, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stevenson, Adam, 2012. "The Labor Supply and Tax Revenue Consequences of Federal Same-Sex Marriage Legalization," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(4), pages 783-806, December.
    2. Carpenter, Christopher S. & Gonzales, Gilbert & McKay, Tara & Sansone, Dario, 2020. "Effects of the Affordable Care Act Dependent Coverage Mandate on Health Insurance Coverage for Individuals in Same-Sex Couples," IZA Discussion Papers 13119, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Jepsen, Christopher & Jepsen, Lisa K., 2009. "Does home ownership vary by sexual orientation?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 307-315, May.
    4. Madeline Zavodny, 2008. "Is there a ‘marriage premium’ for gay men?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 369-389, December.
    5. Ronald Mincy & Jennifer Hill & Marilyn Sinkewicz, 2009. "Marriage: Cause or mere indicator of future earnings growth?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 417-439.
    6. Ganghua Mei & Lei Yue, 2022. "Labor supply and time use: evidence from cohabiting women in the United States," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(44), pages 5133-5158, September.
    7. Sansone, Dario, 2019. "Pink work: Same-sex marriage, employment and discrimination," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    8. Oreffice, Sonia, 2011. "Sexual orientation and household decision making.: Same-sex couples' balance of power and labor supply choices," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 145-158, April.
    9. Philippe Aghion & Matias Braun & Johannes Fedderke, 2008. "Competition and productivity growth in South Africa," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 16(4), pages 741-768, October.
    10. Robin Fisher & Geof Gee & Adam Looney, 2018. "Same-Sex Married Tax Filers After Windsor and Obergefell," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(4), pages 1423-1446, August.
    11. Wolfgang Frimmel & Martin Halla & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2014. "Can Pro-Marriage Policies Work? An Analysis of Marginal Marriages," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(4), pages 1357-1379, August.
    12. Josef Montag, 2015. "What Drives the Gender Gap? An Analysis Using Sexual Orientation," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 577-608, November.
    13. Rebitzer, James B. & Taylor, Lowell J., 2011. "Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Motives: Standard and Behavioral Approaches to Agency and Labor Markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 8, pages 701-772, Elsevier.
    14. James Alm, 2017. "Is Economics Useful for Public Policy?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(4), pages 835-854, April.
    15. Bradley T. Heim, 2009. "Structural Estimation of Family Labor Supply with Taxes: Estimating a Continuous Hours Model Using a Direct Utility Specification," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(2).
    16. Katherine B. Coffman & Lucas C. Coffman & Keith M. Marzilli Ericson, 2017. "The Size of the LGBT Population and the Magnitude of Antigay Sentiment Are Substantially Underestimated," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(10), pages 3168-3186, October.
    17. Rebecca DiBennardo & Gary Gates, 2014. "Research Note: US Census Same-Sex Couple Data: Adjustments to Reduce Measurement Error and Empirical Implications," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 33(4), pages 603-614, August.
    18. Charles Strohm & Judith Seltzer & Susan Cochran & Vickie Mays, 2009. ""Living Apart Together" relationships in the United States," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 21(7), pages 177-214.
    19. Negrusa, Brighita & Oreffice, Sonia, 2010. "Sexual Orientation and Household Savings: Do Homosexual Couples Save More?," IZA Discussion Papers 4961, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Russell Spiker, 2021. "Same-Sex, Same Health? Health Concordance Among Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(6), pages 1313-1340, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    marriage; individual income tax; marriage tax; taxable unit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tul:wpaper:1402. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kerui Geng (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/detulus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.