Fayette County's representative in the U.S. Congress is pushing for Senate and presidential approval of a House bill that proponents claim will equalize the tax treatment of married and unmarried Americans.

“Ending this inequity makes this an important bill to married Americans,” Rep. Mac Collins, R-3rd District, said last week following House passage of the Marriage Penalty Tax Relief Act of 2000.

The bipartisan vote was 265 to 159. Collins urged the president and Senate to end “tax rules which hit married couples harder than unmarried couples who earn the same income.”

The difference is estimated to average $1,300 per couple, according to the Heritage Foundation. “If two people are unmarried and earn $30,000 each, they will each be taxed at the 15 percent tax rate,” said the Hampton Republican. “If they are married, their income is taxed at the $60,000 tax bracket, which is 20 percent.”

The new act will extend the lower tax bracket so fewer working families will be pushed into a higher tax bracket, he said.

The new act also changes tax rules regarding deductions. Under present law, each unmarried person currently can claim the full standard deduction on his or her salary. Once married, each person gets only 75 percent of the standard deduction.

“Like 144,000 other taxpayers in the 3rd District of Georgia, I have a wedding band,” Collins said on the floor of the House as he urged his colleagues to vote for the measure. “It is a symbol of my marriage, but to the IRS, this ring is an excuse to raise more revenue. That's not right.

“I would have preferred that we made the tax relief effective for the tax year of 2000, instead of tax year 2001, so families would get immediate relief,” Collins said on the floor of the House, adding he wants to see faster implementation added before the bill arrives on the president's desk for signature.