Gay couples face higher tax bills

[yardwork]

Source: CNN

MOUNT LAUREL, New Jersey (AP) -- For gay couples, the April 15 tax filing deadline can be a reminder of the disparities they face, even in a nation that is becoming more accepting of same-sex couples.

Gay couples often pay higher taxes because they don't get the federal tax benefits that go with marriage. And for couples in state-sanctioned domestic partnerships, civil unions or same-sex marriages, filing federal income taxes can involve doing three sets of paperwork instead of one.

"It's a significant financial disability," said Beth Asaro, who last year entered into one of New Jersey's first legally recognized civil unions.

While the debate over government recognition of gay marriage is a political hot-button with arguments about morality, civil rights and tradition, the tax issue is a mostly practical one for hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/04/14/gay.taxes.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

[GodlessBiker]

1. Isn't this an equal protection violation? Recognizing some legal marriages but not others?

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Yes it is an equal protection violation

And each year I have the opprotunity to tell snarky fellwo Democrats that if they want to stop hearing about gay 'concerns' all they need do is pay the difference between my tax bill and my hetero counterparts and I'll shut up. They never write the check, but they never stop accusing gay people of being 'PC' or quibbling about the word marriage. Most of them don't even think about the fact that they get special treatment.

[swimmernsecretsea]

4. I went to an economic empowerment seminar held at the LGBT Center in San Francisco

This was a while ago, but it still applies...

The speakers were discussing methods for improving ones wealth and income, secure financial matters, and issues regarding same-sex couples. All of them said it was a great shock for their clients to learn how much of a tax hardship they would bear by not being allowed the same benefits as opposite-sex couples, even over short term. They all said this often brought out their activism and encouraged them to petition for marriage rights. I think it brought the issue of descrimination to their consciousness, after having accepted the situation for a lifetime.

There are many, many ways in which same-sex couples are allowed less privileges. Starting with this economic issue, then moving to simply being allowed hospital visits and medical care decisions, then onto the simple but powerful issue of being "separate but equal" in a civil union instead of just being allowed to love and marry should have every LGBT person enraged enough to take action.

[mandpstevens]

6. We refuse to cooperate with such oppression.

We are civilly married. We broke no law to do it. Our country has a treaty with Canada (where we were civilly married) of mutual recognition of marriages performed in the other one. Therefore, we stand on our civil marriage. We file taxes jointly, we file joint customs declarations, etc.

Since 2003, under the old federal sentencing guidelines, we've now re-become multiple unconvicted felons (re- as we were under the old sodomy laws) enough that we gave up counting the possible penalties when we exceeded a hundred years in prison and a million dollars in fines -- apiece!

If we refused to testify against each other -- relying on spousal privilege (ask Rosie & Kelly O'Donnell about their experience with that one), we'd likely be held in contempt -- nearly infinitely renewable contempt, too, and could be prohibited from contacting each other if convicted -- in prison and out for as long as we were either imprisoned or on parole as only family the feds recognize are exempt from the no-contact-with-other-felons rule.

Do you think we get angry when reminded of these inequities every time April 15th rolls around?

Fifteen years ago one university study found that the lack of civil marriage equality cost the average lesbian or gay couple over a million dollars over the course of a lifetime together -- and, when I asked its head researcher about its scope, she had to admit that, even at that high impact, it covered only a fraction of the actual fiscal consequence discrimination involved.

While we are driven primarily by the indignity of being denied civil marriage equality under the law, we are hardly unmindful of this impoverishing of our people. (Contrary to lies spread by some, gay people have been shown to be poorer than straight people when proper matched pair research was done. Discrimination inflicts upon us the same forms of damage it does other oppressed minorities.) It is a big enough part of the injustice with enough serious negative consequences that anyone should have their credentials as decent humans questioned if they don't join the fight to stop it.

[swimmernsecretsea]

8. Thanks for fighting and maintaining your rights, as well as ours.

I know that it must seem strange that people are awakened to the inequities of a same-sex couple or nontraditional union, but I think that people sometimes willfully ignore things that they feel will bother them or might cause their lives to be disrupted, but it's important to know when you're living in a cell.

I wish you the greatest of happiness in your union--your marriage.

[yardwork]

3. This is the reality of the "gay agenda" - we want the same rights everyone else has.

[xchrom]

5. yes we know -- and it just gets more complicated as you acquire things like property.

[Scooter24]

7. My boyfriend and I

own our home, three cars, a boat, several rental properties, have considerable investments, and both own our businesses. You can only imagine the headaches we have each January. lol