This code computes the difference in federal income taxes for joint filing versus separate filing for a couple where each partner has a salary between 1K and 200K. The code makes extremely basic tax assumptions (no dependents, no itemized deductions, no scholarships, no witholdings, no educational expenses, no retirment contributions, not a home owner, not self-employed, no other taxable income).

The code uses the tax brackets defined on the tax foundation website and takes into account Personal Exemptions, Standard Deductions, and Pease Limitations. The code does not take into account the Alternative Minimum Tax Exemption nor Earned Income Tax Credits.

The function new_old_taxes.m computes the net income for a University of California graduate student assuming just basic tax brackets under the current (November 2017) tax brackets and the proposed senate tax brackets. The code assumes that the student is a resident of California.