Wait, I thought US essentially doubles the tax slabs if you are married and file as a couple. So it works out well for couples with income skew
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/sites/default/files/2019-03/i...
Or am I misunderstanding something
In addition to the brackets, there's tons of other deductions, exemptions, etc that are higher or double for married-filing-jointly tax returns.
Just one example is the capital gains on selling your home: if you're filing singly you get an exemption on the first $250k of capital gains, but if you're married and filing jointly that exemption is on the first $500k of gains.
So, depending on your particular situation, you pick the one where you pay less taxes.
Marriage cannot ever increase your tax liability.
The tax brackets mostly eliminate the "marriage penalty", though there are some true edge cases that might make filing separately better. Generally speaking, most married couples do the same or better by filing together.
Can’t. You’re just wrong.