An Evidence Based Approach to Family in Tax Policy

Abstract

In this paper the “evidence-based” framework of the field of Family Policy is applied to tax policy. The empirical and scientific data on the role of family in public policymaking is applied to current tax discourse on the family, including the debate over the joint tax return. The proposals by critical tax studies scholars for elimination of the joint tax return are thus opposed, in part, based on the available scientific evidence that families remain a key contributor to modern society notwithstanding an ongoing decline in marriage rates in the United States. Various ideas for the updating of tax theory to incorporate family into the raw individualism of Enlightenment era theory are also explored in detail.

Keywords: Tax policy; evidence-based policymaking; family

JEL Classification: k34