Bundesverfassungsgericht: Ehegattensplitting gilt auch für Homo-Ehe
[German supreme court: Tax advantages must be extended to same-sex marriages]
I am not happy in general with a tax code element that encourages one part of a married couple (usually the woman) to not take up paid work. Living on a partner's income (and tax benefits) for years or decades usually means no end of financial trouble after a divorce or in old age. But if benefits, even ones with bad long-term effects, are given to married couples, they need to be given to all of them, or the whole thing is a joke. (I also harbour the faint hope that extending these benefits to SSMs might do some damage to the gendered distribution of poverty that the tax code promotes.)
[German supreme court: Tax advantages must be extended to same-sex marriages]
I am not happy in general with a tax code element that encourages one part of a married couple (usually the woman) to not take up paid work. Living on a partner's income (and tax benefits) for years or decades usually means no end of financial trouble after a divorce or in old age. But if benefits, even ones with bad long-term effects, are given to married couples, they need to be given to all of them, or the whole thing is a joke. (I also harbour the faint hope that extending these benefits to SSMs might do some damage to the gendered distribution of poverty that the tax code promotes.)