Is There Really a Tax on Being Single?

There's a tax that has nothing to do with April 15th. People call it the "singles tax," and if you've ever felt like your money moves differently than your partnered friends' money, you're not imagining it. But here's the thing — it's not really about being single. It's about running a household on one income instead of two.

In this episode, Maddie and Meghan break down exactly where that gap shows up, where it doesn't, and where the internet's version of the "singles tax" gets it wrong.

In this episode, we cover:

1. The tax code gap For 2026, the standard deduction is $16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for those married filing jointly — exactly double. We walk through what that actually means for a single person earning $100K compared to a married couple earning the same combined income.

2. The insurance gap (and the wrinkle inside it) Health insurance and auto insurance treat marital status completely differently — one nearly doubles your premium when you add a partner, the other gives married drivers a real discount. We break down why insurance doesn't play by the tax code's rules.

3. The housing math — and a term that gets misused Splitting a two-bedroom apartment saves the average renter hundreds of dollars a month compared to living alone. But that savings has nothing to do with being married — a roommate gets you the same math a spouse does. We separate "being single" from "living alone," because a lot of "singles tax" content conflates the two.

4. The flip side nobody talks about This isn't one-directional bad news. High-earning couples can actually pay more married than single (the real marriage penalty), and being single comes with financial upsides of its own — full control, no shared liability, no negotiating every decision. We talk through both sides honestly.

🎙️ "It's not a tax on being single. It's a tax on doing it alone — and that's a different thing."

Whether you're single by choice, single for now, partnered, married, divorced, or widowed — this episode isn't about which status "wins." It's about understanding where the system works in your favor and where it doesn't, so you can plan around it instead of getting blindsided by it.

Coming up next: We're flipping this completely in Part 2 — the stuff nobody warns you about once you actually combine your finances with someone else. Subscribe so you don't miss it.

Resources:

Budget Blueprint Builder — Our one-hour workshop with an Excel and Google Sheets template built for exactly this kind of mid-year reset. $47. Linked Here!

🎯 5-Day Expense Reset — Free. For when today's episode made you want to finally just look at the full picture.

📘 The Confident Investor Blueprint