When filling out your federal income tax return, there is no requirement to identify your race. Moreover, the US tax code does not contain specific racial group provisions. Yet just because the tax code is considered race blind does not mean it’s race neutral.
A recent study by the Tax Policy Center, for example, found that Black couples on average face higher tax costs associated with marriage than White couples. It is part of a growing body of research that shows the tax code can create or reinforce economic disparities between Black households and White households.
The research is providing empirical evidence for the seminal work done by legal scholars Dorothy Brown, Beverly Moran and William Whitford, which raised the likelihood of racial inequities in the tax code. Read more
