[lbblack]

Marriage is more of a social or cultural construct; regardless if people see a point in doing it, the US government provides a wealth of monetary support to couples and families who do it (e.g. married couples can have substantially lower tax filings compared to being single.)

[twox2]

Funny, I've heard from multiple married friends of the "marriage tax" and how it knocks their finances all out of whack tax-wise. Some have seen the tax burden go up, and then again when getting divorced a few years later. But as for "why get married?" It's a way that people show commitment to each other.

[lbblack]

The marriage tax seems like a way for the government to get it's cut of joint filings if couples are maximizing their income relative to their inherently lower tax bracket. I'm just a kid so don't quote me but I'd be willing to wager that the IRS has figured out all sorts of ways to prevent couples from abusing their tax leverage versus when they were single. Why people get married is very different than

> Why does my relationship need to be officially registered

There could be many reasons why couples get married, and many reasons why couples get divorced.

[lathiat]

Interestingly. In Australia there is 0 tax difference between being married or having been in a relationship for 6 months. It’s considered the same.

Otherwise people would never get married :)

[topkai22]

The tax reforms during the Trump administration largely eliminated the marriage tax penalty, expect for couples earning more than $600k/year. Prior to those changes, married couples would generally pay more tax in their combined income then if they filed separately. The big exception to that was there was a big difference in earnings between the partners, in which case they’d pay less overall