marriage penalty. Tax. The difference between the greater income-tax liability owed by a married couple filing a joint income-tax return and the lesser amount they would owe had they been single and filed individually. • A marriage penalty exists whenever a married couple is treated disadvantageously under a tax code in comparison with an unmarried […]
marriage bonus. Tax. The difference between the reduced income-tax liability owed by a married couple filing a joint income-tax return and the greater amount they would have owed had they been single and filed individually. — Also termed singles’ penalty. Cf. MARRIAGE PENALTY.
Hist. A penalty exacted by a lord from a ward who married without the lord’s consent. • The penalty was a money payment double the value that the marriage would otherwise have been worth to the lord.
forfeiture of marriage Read More »
stipulatio sponsalitia (stip-y[schwa]-lay-shee-oh spon-s[schwa]-lish-ee-[ schwa]). [Latin] Roman law. In early law, a solemn promise by a father (paterfamilias) that his child would marry someone else’s child. • In some cases, there was a penalty if the marriage did not occur. In classical and later Roman law, in which free marriage was the rule, such a
stipulatio sponsalitia Read More »