Marriage Penalty

Attention: married couples. When you fill out your taxes, you'll note that, had you each filed individually, you likely would have had to pay Uncle Sam...less. But no. You said "I do" or "we do" or however you did things before smashing the wine glass. So now you pay a "marriage penalty": a few hundred bucks more in your taxes each year than had you not been married.

The extra tax charges don't always happen, and tax laws change all the time, but a marriage penalty is yet another test of love. And you'll ask yourself on April 15, "Was he/she worth it?" Well, now you have a number you can put with that question.