Vox

What really mattered in 2024
The stories that will endure from a wild year.
by Kelsey Piper

Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race! Donald Trump was nearly assassinated! … and convicted of 34 felonies! … and elected again! Elon Musk became his right-hand man. Israel’s war in Gaza exploded into additional fights with Hezbollah and Iran, which resolved shockingly quickly (unless I speak too soon). Out of nowhere the Syrian rebels overthrew a more than 50-year-old regime.

AI grew by leaps and bounds, again: You can now generate much better images, get comprehensive research reports on any topic, and talk for free to models that perform well across a wide range of tasks (while still having some glaring basic failings).

The tax penalty on married women hiding in plain sight
Millions would be better off if the US changed its joint filing system.
by Rachel Cohen

Let’s say a woman, Kate, who earns $100,000, marries Jack, who earns $200,000, and they decide to file jointly. Together, their combined income of $300,000 would fall into the 24 percent tax bracket for joint filers. But if Kate had filed individually, she would have been taxed in the 22 percent tax bracket, while Jack’s $200,000 would push him into the 32 percent bracket. Put simply, Kate’s earnings are taxed more when she jointly files with Jack.

Though married couples in the US have the option of filing separately, fewer than 7 percent actually do, as that often subjects households to higher taxes than joint filing, in addition to causing them to lose other benefits. In this scenario, Kate and Jack’s take-home pay would be roughly $5,000 more if filed jointly than if they went with “married filing separately.”