A Brief History of Marriage in the Tax Code (v22) – Video Self Study Course

Course Description

This course will trace the history of filing statuses and how community property law was central to forcing Congress to create filing statuses, and how filing statues are still a thorny issue in tax law.

NOTE - This is a Video Self-Study Course

Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course participant should be able to be complete the following objectives:

• Understand the earliest form of taxation, from 1862
• Explain how taxes worked when our current version of the tax code started in 1913
• Explain how taxes changed once the U.S. entered World War I
• Understand the basics of community property law
• Identify how community property law created a loophole in the tax law
• Understand the debate over how to tax married couples in the 1920s
• Identify the key Supreme Court case (Poe vs. Seaborn) from 1930
• Understand how filing statuses worked when Congress created them in 1948
• Identify key changes to tax law through the years after 1948 relating to filing statuses
• Understand how the marriage penalty works
• Understand how tax law still creates oddities where sometimes married couples pay more in taxes, and sometimes less in taxes, by either getting married or by staying single

CPE Credits: 1 CPE for CPAs and EAs

Level: Basic

Instructional Method: Self-Study

NASBA Field of Study: Taxes

Program Prerequisites: None

Advanced Preparation: None

Revision Date: October 17, 2022