If you’re a stay-at-home parent the New York Times thinks you’re a tax cheat. Makes perfect sense, right? You don’t have a job, yet somehow you’re robbing the government of tax revenue. Josh Barro wrote a piece for the Times that details just how it is he thinks you’re getting an unfair advantage.

New York Times – President Obama’s proposal to expand a tax break for working parents with children under 5 has some conservatives criticizing it for discriminating against stay-at-home parents.

Those parents wouldn’t be able to take the proposed tax credit equal to 50 percent of child care expenses, up to a maximum of $3,000 per child. What the critics fail to see is that the playing field wasn’t level to begin with. The tax code is already hugely distorted in favor of stay-at-home parenting: Labor outside the home is taxed; household work, such as stay-at-home parenting, is not.

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