# Plain Language Summary: Make Marriage Great Again Act of 2025

This bill changes how the federal income tax system treats married couples by adjusting the tax brackets that determine how much tax people owe. Right now, when two people get married and file taxes together, they sometimes end up paying more in total taxes than they would have if they stayed single and filed separately. This is called the "marriage penalty," and it happens because the tax brackets for married couples filing jointly aren't quite double the brackets for single filers. This bill aims to fix that by making the married filing jointly tax brackets exactly twice as wide as the single filer brackets, starting in 2025.

Here's what this means in practical terms: imagine a single person pays 22% tax on income between $47,150 and $100,525. Under this bill, a married couple would pay that same 22% rate on income between $94,300 and $201,050 (exactly double). The goal is to ensure that two married people with the same combined income as a single person don't pay more in taxes just because they're married. The bill also eliminates certain additional tax rules that currently apply to married couples, further reducing the tax burden on married filers.

The main people affected would be married couples filing joint tax returns, particularly those in middle to upper-middle income ranges where the marriage penalty is most noticeable. Depending on their income level and other tax factors, many married couples could see their federal income taxes decrease. However, the overall cost to the government and whether this would be offset by other tax changes or spending cuts would depend on how Congress chooses to implement it alongside other tax policy decisions.

Make Marriage Great Again Act of 2025

Steube, W. Gregory

Make Marriage Great Again Act of 2025This bill modifies the federal income tax rate brackets for married individuals filing joint federal income tax returns so that they are twice the amount of the federal income tax rate brackets for unmarried individuals filing federal income tax returns (thus eliminating the tax effect commonly known as the marriage penalty). Further, the bill eliminates the federal income tax rate brackets for married individuals filing separate federal income tax returns for tax years beginning after December 31, 2024. (An income tax rate bracket is a range of income that is taxed at a specific percentage to determine an individual’s income tax liability.)Thus, under the bill, the federal income tax rate bracket amounts that apply to a married individual are either (1) the individual federal income tax rate bracket amounts if such individual files an individual federal income tax return, or (2) twice such amounts if the individual files a joint federal income tax return with their spouse.