Unless Congress avoids the Fiscal Cliff, we will have a return of the so-called Marriage Penalty, resulting in higher taxes for many couples 2013.

Prior to the Bush tax cuts, there was a indeed a “penalty” against married couples under the tax code, as their standard deduction and income tax brackets were less than twice those of singles.  In essence, married couples were paying higher taxes than their non-married counterparts.

When Congress passed the Bush tax cuts, however, they corrected the imbalance by, among others, giving married couples a standard deduction that’s exactly twice that of individuals. They also established income ranges for the 10% and 15% tax brackets to be exactly double that given to individual taxpayers.