ABSTRACT
As Sainsbury has compellingly argued, ‘the tax system is a crucial nexus of the state, the family, and the market’.2 The intent of this chapter is to consider the current tax credit system for families, at the intersection of all of these factors. The impact of such initiatives on family decision making, in particular, will be addressed. Through incentives provided via the tax system, different types of families may be ‘privileged’, some members encouraged to enter the labour market or to leave it,3 and this chapter will investigate the extent to which gendered tax incentives influence those choices and thus have an impact upon the division of family labour and gender relations within the home.4 This chapter will confront the fact that tax incentives historically have encouraged fathers to work outside of the home and mothers to work inside of it, and, now, may be seeking to redress this balance. Put simply, this chapter will seek to demonstrate that tax plays a significant role in fashioning the subject of family law.
