Happy New Year and welcome back to the Same Sex Tax Law Blog. Something important happened in December that I haven’t yet mentioned on this blog. Congress finally gave us some tax certainty by enacting the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance…
I know the new IRS Publication 17 (available online) appears to say that RDPs in California, Nevada, and Washington may choose to split their community income. But it isn’t really a choice. If it is community income, then the rule…
Many taxpayers and their tax advisers are confused by the Internal Revenue Service’s apparent inconsistency regarding who can split community income on their federal tax returns. Some complain that they can find no binding authority to support the position that…
A common question on tax accounting blogs is who gets to claim the mortgage interest deduction when the home is jointly owned. Or, who gets to claim the property tax deduction? Given how often this question arises, it is surprising…
When two people fall in love and decide to move in together, interesting tax questions arise about home ownership. Married couples don’t have this problem. If one spouse owns the home and wants to put the other spouse on title,…
On my inaugural welcome post to this blog I mentioned that the IRS has issued a CCA holding that California RDPs (Registered Domestic Partners) are covered by the holding in Poe v. Seaborn, a 1930 Supreme Court case that ruled…
This morning I woke up thinking about the estate tax. Will we continue to have one? Will the exemption of $3.5M be reinstated or will it revert to the meager $1.0M exemption, as scheduled for January 1, 2011. And, when…
Many states recognize formally created relatioships of same-sex couples and treat them the same as spouses under their divorce laws. Some states recognize marriage (e.g., Massachusetts, Iowa). Some recognize Registered Domestic Partnerships or RDPs (e.g., California, Washington, Nevada, Oregon). And…
A friend from the east coast emailed me this morning. (Well, to be honest, it was probably afternoon on the east coast.) Her question was: are alimony payments made in same-sex divorces taxable as gifts? Apparently a local family law…
INTRODUCTION TO TAX ISSUES FOR SAME SEX COUPLES The Internal Revenue Code provides numerous special provisions for spouses. At the current time none of these provisions applies to same-sex couples. Even legally married same-sex couples, residing in states where their…