bracket creep

noun

: movement into a higher tax bracket as a result of income rises intended to offset the effects of inflation

Examples of bracket creep in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Rising wages and 'bracket creep' Workers' incomes have generally been rising. Scott Horsley, NPR, 11 Apr. 2024 This diagnostic bracket creep struck me as mistaken conceptually — think of those bold fish — but sometimes justified clinically. Peter D. Kramer, STAT, 16 Nov. 2023 To avoid bracket creep, the government began adjusting, or indexing, tax brackets for inflation in the early 1980s, after a long period of raging inflation. Ann Carrns, New York Times, 23 Sep. 2022 Surreptitiously and automatically through inflation and bracket creep. Mike Solon, WSJ, 2 Aug. 2022 Change to income tax brackets to avoid bracket creep. Steven Arons, Fortune, 4 Sep. 2022 That means, in a world with 8.6% inflation, South Carolina’s indexing is not keeping up with inflation, resulting in some bracket creep. Patrick Gleason, Forbes, 16 June 2022 With 16 tax brackets and 9% inflation over the period, bracket creep increased taxes as a share of gross domestic product by 2.1%, dwarfing the later Clinton and Obama tax increases combined. Mike Solon, WSJ, 2 Aug. 2022 Lawmakers in some of these 13 states have taken action this year to protect their constituents against bracket creep. Patrick Gleason, Forbes, 16 June 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bracket creep.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1977, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of bracket creep was in 1977

Dictionary Entries Near bracket creep

Cite this Entry

“Bracket creep.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bracket%20creep. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

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