The widow penalty is a real thing and in many ways unfair.
My wife is 6 years younger and in better physical condition than I and we’ve taken steps to make sure that she’ll be in good financial condition when I’m out of the picture.
All income taxes are theft.
To the extent that we have to tolerate any at all, it should be a low, flat rate. Possibly partially deductible for hardship situations only.
It’s not a widow penalty, it’s a tax penalty for surviving.When either I or my wife dies, the remaining of us will see substantially increased income taxes The largest chunk of our retirement income, about 50-60% last year, comes from RMDs from our IRAs. Adjusting for the loss of one S/S payment, the one left standing will have 80-85% of the income we two had, at a greatly increased income tax rate. I suspect some charities will be pleased.
I pay this. It was surprising, but it’s not a penalty to pay more taxes when the household has one fewer person.
It doesn’t only affect a widow being forced into a higher income tax bracket, that higher tax bracket affects the amount of money that is deducted from social security for Medicare premiums Now that I am a widow approximately four hundred dollars a month is deducted from my social security income for traditional Medicare premiums.
@mcarley You you were not forced into the filing as a single person. tax category because you still have a minor child that is your dependent So you are considered to be a widow with dependents that keeps you in the tax rate as when you were married and filing jointly The only difference is the number of dependents you can claim
Yes, the difference for me was the change from married to qualified widower, to head of household.
I was surprised that my deduction for my kid went down when he turned 17. I hadn’t expected it till 18 at least.
Mom learned all about this a couple of years ago.
It is also a divorce penalty. Especially if the kids are considered adults
It is a bullshit higher rate for the same income.
And don’t tell me it’s offset by reduced living expenses. The mortgage does not get reduced when a person is widowed (and it is extremely expensive to relocate, whether you’re selling or renting), and the utilities go down by less than half, if at all.
Internet service is typically flat, and power/water typically have a base rate before use, which also doesn’t reduce by half either.
It is an extremely unfair system and an accurate representation of how corrupt and irresponsible our federal government is overall.
Some expenses are certainly lower for one than for two. Whether it matches the difference, IDK.
It doesn’t come close.
I started this thread to be informative because I was not aware of some of these tax penalties for being a widow until my husband died a few years ago
My total income is less than when my husband was alive because he had a pension from when he was the Director of the New York City Forensic/CrimeLab that ended when he died However I am paying more for income taxes now because of the substantial increased in my tax rate when it went from filing jointly to filing as a single person
One of the biggest surprises was that this new tax rate would
have a substantial affect on my Medicare premiums and around four hundred dollars a month is being deducted from my social security income every month for Medicare Premiums
why we need the fair tax See states are starting to get rid of income tax and make it up with sales tax. Fair tax would do the same sort of thing
I’m not a fan of the Fair Tax, I’d rather see a flat tax with no deductions or credits. Also maybe a national sales tax as long as Congress kept spending in check ( 
I know, never gonna happen).
I’ve realized that the only way out of the natural evolution into nasty inflation and joblessness is to educate the voters enough that they learn how money and power work, so that they do their homework on candidates and then hold them accountable at reelection.
There’s really no other way.
And that seems extremely unlikely to happen, as the most influential educational/informational forces are public schools and the big media companies.
Neither of those blobs has any incentive whatsoever to teach its audience to think for itself and make smart decisions.
A penalty, maybe, but our current tax structure is clearly and fundamentally unfair. If we are going to have an income tax, then everyone should pay the same percentage of their income as tax - no credits, no deductions, no different tax rates for different types of income or different levels of income, regardless of income level. If the government wants people to receive the variety of credits currently offered, then they should be implemented separate from the tax code and paid out separately so that they can be identified and the public made aware of the volume of those payments. In fact, it might also be that those payments be considered taxable income.
The best thing would be to eliminate the income tax and replace it with some form of consumption tax.
Agreed, but the problem is some idiots want both.
I don’t see a problem with both but everyone knows what will happen, both will increase as will spending.