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 Federal Tax Law Hits Gay Families Harder
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: April 9, 2007 - 7:00 pm ET
(Washington) Gay and lesbian families pay higher
federal income tax than their opposite-sex married counterparts. Once again the
Internal Revenue Service is warning tax preparers, businesses and state
governments that same-sex couples legally married in Massachusetts, who have had
civil unions in New jersey, Connecticut or Vermont, or who areregistered as
domestic partners in states such as California must file separate income tax
forms.
Citing the so-called Federal Defense of Marriage
Act the IRS says that the US government does not recognize anything other than
legally married opposite-sex couples.
The law allows straight couples who are married
to divide their incomes when they file jointly, usually meaning a lower tax
rate.
"Each tax season, same-sex
couples sit at their dining room tables and are forced to live a legal lie
by checking single despite their decades together - arbitrarily dividing
up their joint households income, expenses, and dependents," said Molly
McKay, a spokesperson for Marriage Equality, a group that represents gay
families.
"Even
in states with domestic partnerships or civil unions, we still have to
check single on our tax forms because our federal government doesn't consider us a
family," said McKay.
"Then we
write checks to the IRS for higher social security taxes because we cant
file jointly, knowing that when we die our families will not even have
access to any of the family safety net benefits provided by our tax
dollars in the form of social security survivor benefits, estate tax
deferral, and other programs that we help fund with our tax dollars but
which only heterosexual married couples and t heir children will enjoy."
Attempts to file a joint returns could lead to
fines or other penalties, the IRS warns.
Two years ago a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit
filed by a gay couple in Minnesota claiming they deserved a tax refund because
they were legally married and should be granted married taxpayer status.
People who receive health insurance from their
state or local government or through their employer for their spouses or
domestic partners are additionally hit with taxes.
Spousal health benefits are not taxed. But,
since the IRS does not recognize gay relationships the benefits are considered
income. In some cases the tax outweighs any savings.
A study in 2004 found that gay families pay on
average higher taxes and get fewer benefits.
The joint study by the Human Rights Campaign and
the Urban Institute also found that when a gay or lesbian parent dies leaving a
young child behind, the loss of Social Security survivor benefits to the family
can range from $100,000 to $250,000, depending on whether state laws permitted
both parents to establish a legal relationship to the surviving child.
Last year, the National Sexuality Resource Center
released a new study showing widespread psychological and social harm inflicted
on same-sex couples because they are denied the right to marry. (story)
The co-authors, Gilbert Herdt, PhD,
anthropologist, and director of the National Sexuality Resource Center at San
Francisco State University, and Robert Kertzner, MD, practicing psychiatrist,
and Adjunct Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at
Columbia University, found that on average, married individuals have better
mental health, more emotional support, less psychological distress, and lower
rates of psychiatric disorder than the unmarried.
In February, financial guru and best-selling
author Suze Orman came out, saying that if Orman dies before her partner, Kathy
Travis, Travis "is going to lose 50 percent of everything I have to estate
taxes." (story)
©365Gay.com 2007
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