The Supreme Court today struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. What does this mean for taxes? It means couples in same-sex marriages no longer have to jump through the following hoops to meet their tax obligations: Prepare and file separate federal tax returns as two single people and applying tax law as it applies […]
The US Supreme Court will issue its ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act today. For tax purposes, if DOMA is overturned, couples in same-sex marriages will be treated as married for federal tax purposes and won’t need to jump through all of the ridiculous hoops they currently must jump through to meet their tax […]
In most of my blog posts about same-sex marriage and taxes, I reference “DOMA.” What is DOMA? DOMA stands for the “Defense of Marriage Act.” The pertinent part of DOMA says (my emphasis added): In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus […]
The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013. Here’s what couples in same-gender marriages should be doing with their taxes right now, in case DOMA gets overturned.
One of the recent DOMA cases has officially been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. This is an appeal of a May 31st federal appeals court ruling that DOMA is unconstitutional. Prior coverage of the case on this blog can be found here and here. This is the first DOMA case to be appealed to the […]
The slow but steady death march of the Defense of Marriage Act continued Wednesday, as another federal court ruled DOMA unconstitutional. This latest case involved the estate tax. Edie Windsor’s same-sex spouse, Thea Spyer, died in 2009 and left a large estate to Windsor. Because of DOMA, the unlimited spousal exclusion available under estate-tax law […]
I already posted the basics of what last week’s DOMA ruling means for the tax situations of same-sex married couples. (Short version: nothing changes yet.) Here are a few other thoughts on my mind, and things I am researching after the ruling: If the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately overturns DOMA, and DOMA is overturned retroactively, […]
This blog post is about an appeals court ruling on DOMA in 2012. If you’re looking for commentary on the US Supreme Court’s DOMA ruling on 6/26/13, click here. —– A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. See a Washington Post article about the ruling here. […]
With same-sex marriage & taxes, the focus should be on the blatant discrimination of the system, not on dollars and cents on a 1040.
People in same-sex relationships know that if a same-sex partner is not a dependent, then the value of health benefits provided to that partner are taxable income. Some of my clients in same-sex relationships have upwards of $10,000 of “income” added to their W-2s because they have a partner on their health insurance. But most […]
