Nobody’s a fan of tax day. In fact, most of us get anxiety attacks on the weeks leading up to it, wondering what the hell we’ll end up owing. I knew when I was single and filing taxes on my own I didn’t get some of the breaks my married friends got. But then I learned deductions aren’t the only way single people get screwed. It’s the kind of thing that makes tax season feel even more unfair than it already does.

Now that I’m married, I get to partake in the benefits of joint filings, which is great for me. But for my single friends, especially those who can’t legally marry their partners, it’s double punishment. Regardless of whether you want to legally commit to someone or bask in your freedom, we should all be paying the same. Marital privilege pervades nearly every facet of our lives. It’s not just a paperwork issue. It shapes the way people are treated in ways that feel built into the system.

Our federal code contains more than 1,000 laws where marital status does factor into the equation of who pays what amount. Insurance policies can cost more for unmarried people, and landlords can discriminate based on marital status. I remember one apartment manager telling me a young couple would be a better fit because they were “doing things the right way.” That exchange was real, and my married friend witnessed it. It was one of those moments that makes you realize how casual the bias can be

It floored me to learn that a single person making $80,000 per year would expect to pay over a million dollars more over her lifetime than her married counterpart earning the same amount. I’m not conservative when it comes to paying taxes, because taxes are a necessary evil. But the playing field should be level. Why aren’t we supporting equal treatment for the same benefits? It seems like such a basic principle, and yet it still gets buried under outdated assumptions.