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IRS shows newly married gay couples no love

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joeybee12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-10-11 09:23 AM
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IRS shows newly married gay couples no love
For all those same-sex newlyweds in New York, Lawrence S. Jacobs has a message: Enjoy the Champagne and the honeymoon, but expect no gifts from the IRS. Jacobs, a lawyer in Washington, specializes in estate planning for same-sex couples — and in delivering the bad news that their unions aren’t legal in the eyes of the IRS, a policy that will cost them time and money during tax season.

Same-sex couples in Washington, which last year legalized gay marriage, must fill out a federal return to make calculations required for their D.C. joint return. But then they must set that work aside and fill out separate federal returns because the IRS doesn’t regard their union as legal, Jacobs says. “You just spent decades getting your marriage recognized, and now the feds say, ‘No, you’re not,’” says Jacobs, who as a partner in a same-sex marriage has firsthand experience of the problem.

This cumbersome process applies to all married same-sex couples in the U.S. It comes courtesy of the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, which defines marriage as “a legal union between a man and a woman as husband and wife.” The Obama Administration, saying DOMA is unconstitutional, has instructed federal agencies to do what they can under existing law to extend benefits to same-sex partnerships. Such rule-stretching doesn’t go far with the IRS, says Brian Moulton, an attorney with the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington gay rights advocacy group. “There’s a relatively small space before you bump up against DOMA,” he says. “I don’t think there’s much they can do.” The IRS declined to comment.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44058525/ns/business-personal_finance/
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mysuzuki2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-10-11 11:19 AM
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1. In every other way, federal agencies follow state rules
on marriage. As far as I know, DOMA is the ONLY federal law that attempts to define marriage. So much for your "special rights."
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Bluenorthwest Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-10-11 11:31 AM
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2. The bigotry is all about theft and taking our money
Edited on Wed Aug-10-11 11:32 AM by Bluenorthwest
Always has been. Flinty, heartless people picking our pockets.
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Sapphocrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-10-11 01:20 PM
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3. So I take it NY is not a community-property state.
The IRS didn't show us much love, either, but this year it did defer to state community-property laws in CA, NV, and WA, the only three states with both CP laws and legal recognition of same-sex unions.

By "deferring," I mean the IRS mandated that we couples in those states file jointly-but-separately for 2010, whether we wanted to or not. This is "income-splitting" -- we had to combine our separate incomes (and deductions) for the year, then split the total down the middle and each file a separate federal return, each declaring 50% of the total.

It worked out well for us (and for any other couple with a significant income disparity), but it was a nightmare of confusion and required tons of extra paperwork. We had to hire an accountant, because it was all beyond us (especially since it also further confused things with our joint state return).

I was glad to have somebody who knew what she was doing (even though ours was among the first dozen or so such filings she'd ever done this way) -- but I was not pleased to pay an extra $350 out of pocket (to a CPA) just for the privilege of paying our taxes.

While we did get a refund (two refunds, actually -- our total refund split down the middle and sent to us in separate checks!), we were still penalized because the fed refuses to recognize our marriage.

Don't even get me started on how I still don't have health insurance -- which I could get through Buffy's job -- because the IRS would tax my benefit as income to Buffy...
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William769 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-10-11 08:11 PM
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4. K&R.
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RetiredTrotskyite Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-10-11 10:06 PM
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5. The Fundies...
whine about "special" rights. We can't even get equal rights.
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