Totally Gay Taxes

[airboy]

The US Treasury Department released rules today that gays who were legally married in one State and live in a State that does not recognize gay marriage can still file Federal Tax returns as a married couple.

This is what I thought would happen all along on this issue.  Given the Supreme Court ruling on Federal Inheritance Taxes and the Interstate Commerce Clause in the US Constitution - I don't think that the US Treasury Dept. could have done anything differently and had it stand up in court.

I'm not putting this in R&P because I don't think that this is very controversial - although this is a big change in US tax law.

[bayonetbrant]

I suspect that's just another hole in DOMA.  I can't see it surviving the decade.

[Boggit]

I'm still having a hard time differentiating the practical differences between Gay marriage, and civil partnership (gay) - not that I've looked into the legal ramifications of the two relationship types. I suppose that's because it doesn't really affect me one way or another, so haven't any great motivation to go and find out. Anyway, idle curiousity makes me ask...

[bayonetbrant]

There's not a lot of civil distinction. But gay couples (rightfully) argue that not calling it "marriage" somehow makes it seems like less than everyone else's marriage.

The biggest problem here is that "marriage" is the one piece of American life where the religious and civil terms are easily conflated.  There's no civil equivalent of baptism, or confirmation.  There's no religious equivalent of a defamation lawsuit that seeks civil damages.  But there's a religious "marriage" and a civil "marriage" and one does not necessarily require the other. 

The most vocal arguments against a "civil" marriage are religious-based. It's like 2 groups of people shouting at each other "It's gray!"  "No! It's an elephant!"

[LongBlade]

There's a lot of noise about this topic.

IMHO "marriage" is a religious distinction. "Union" is civil. That's just my personal opinion. Two people want to get hitched? They go to the Justice o' the Peace and get hitched. That's a union.

Want to get married? Find a church that'll marry ya. Some will, some won't. Who cares?

[airboy]

Civil unions do not gain US Federal tax benefits.
Marriage does gain US Federal tax benefits.

[LongBlade]

Civil unions do not gain US Federal tax benefits.
Marriage does gain US Federal tax benefits.

Yeah, I wasn't trying to render a legal opinion, just a personal one :)

[Boggit]

Civil unions do not gain US Federal tax benefits.
Marriage does gain US Federal tax benefits.

Then you can understand why Gays feel that they are not being given an even playing field. The argument being that if a heterosexual couple can get tax breaks, then why shouldn't Gays? I suspect the argument against is based more on a conservative resistance to any extension of "Gay rights", than to a desire to see societal equality. I'm not Gay, but I can see why they might feel unfairly discriminated against in the taxation status of "marriage". On the flip side you can understand government being unwilling to extend the tax franchise because of the loss of revenue...