Asklemmy

It's very interesting to me that people tend to mention tax breaks for marriage because it's just not the case except if one of the spouses does not work or makes significantly less than the other. For example, when I was married, our taxes went up by about 6k a year. It's called the marriage penalty tax. A lot of these other benefits also depended entirely on the state/job/facility and are still required to be granted via other documentation. For example, Florida is a probate state and requires a will regardless of marital status or you have to go through probate (ask me how I know). Medical decisions and adoption seem to be important benefits, but these can also happen without marriage. Survivor's benefits are interesting as well because those don't generally extend past the last owed check, but do still go through probate if you're in a probate state.