IRS: LGBT couples who are married can file joint tax returns beginning next year

The Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice announced today that in the wake of the Supreme Court’s late June deci­sion strik­ing down the poor­ly-con­ceived “Defense of Mar­riage Act”, Amer­i­can LGBT spous­es will be able to file joint or sep­a­rate tax returns as mar­ried cou­ples begin­ning next year, no mat­ter where they hap­pen to live.

“Today’s rul­ing pro­vides cer­tain­ty and clear, coher­ent tax fil­ing guid­ance for all legal­ly mar­ried same-sex cou­ples nation­wide. It pro­vides access to ben­e­fits, respon­si­bil­i­ties and pro­tec­tions under fed­er­al tax law that all Amer­i­cans deserve,” said Sec­re­tary Jacob J. Lew in a state­ment released by the Trea­sury.

“This rul­ing also assures legal­ly mar­ried same-sex cou­ples that they can move freely through­out the coun­try know­ing that their fed­er­al fil­ing sta­tus will not change.”

The IRS will not, how­ev­er, rec­og­nize domes­tic part­ner­ships or civ­il unions, so LGBT cou­ples liv­ing in states where full mar­riage equal­i­ty is not yet a real­i­ty will either have to con­tin­ue wait­ing or obtain a mar­riage license from a dif­fer­ent state.

Wash­ing­ton, Cal­i­for­nia, Min­neso­ta, Iowa, Maine, New Hamp­shire, Ver­mont, Mass­a­chu­setts, Con­necti­cut, Rhode Island, New York, Del­ware and Mary­land all per­mit LGBT cou­ples to wed, as does the Dis­trict of Colum­bia, five Native Amer­i­can tribes, and six coun­ties in New Mexico.

Sev­en oth­er states rec­og­nize some form of civ­il union or domes­tic part­ner­ship. These include Ore­gon, New Jer­sey, Hawaii, Col­orado, Neva­da, Wis­con­sin, and Illi­nois. Like the thir­teen states men­tioned above (plus the Dis­trict of Colum­bia) these are all “blue” juris­dic­tions that vot­ed for Barack Oba­ma in 2008 and 2012.

Sad­ly, none of the states that sup­port­ed John McCain in 2008 or Mitt Rom­ney in 2012 have tak­en any steps on the path towards mar­riage equal­i­ty. Most have enact­ed con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­vi­sions declar­ing that mar­riage is only for het­ero­sex­u­al cou­ples. These states will like­ly remain the last bas­tions of inequality.

LGBT cou­ples who have been mar­ried for a few years can choose to file orig­i­nal or amend­ed returns for 2012, 2011, or 2010 if they were mar­ried in those years, the IRS said. (The statute of lim­i­ta­tions gen­er­al­ly per­mits refund claims to be filed for three years from the date that a tax­pay­er filed a return).

“This announce­ment makes today a day of cel­e­bra­tion and relief for mar­ried same-sex cou­ples all over Amer­i­ca,” Free­dom to Mar­ry’s Evan Wolf­son said in a state­ment sent to NPI. “At long last, the IRS will treat them as what they are: mar­ried. Free­dom to Mar­ry com­mends the administration’s swift imple­men­ta­tion of the Supreme Court’s land­mark rul­ing for fed­er­al equal­i­ty in an area that will have a direct, tan­gi­ble impact on fam­i­lies’ finan­cial health.

“The fact that this new respect applies only to mar­ried cou­ples – not those joined by domes­tic part­ner­ships or civ­il unions – high­lights the need for an Amer­i­ca where every­one can mar­ry the per­son they love in any state, and have that mar­riage respect­ed at all lev­els of gov­ern­ment,” Wolf­son added.

On that note, we’d like to remind our read­ers that a cam­paign is under­way to bring mar­riage equal­i­ty to Ore­gon in 2014.

Because Beaver State vot­ers approved a con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment out­law­ing mar­riages between LGBT cou­ples in 2004, Ore­gon’s Leg­is­la­ture is not able to make mar­riage equal­i­ty a real­i­ty through statute as Wash­ing­ton’s Leg­is­la­ture did last year. The only way to get it done is through a new con­sti­tu­tion­al amendment.

In a way, this sim­pli­fies things, because a change in statute would like­ly have been sub­ject to a pub­lic vote via ref­er­en­dum anyway.

I should men­tion that in Ore­gon, unlike Wash­ing­ton, con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ments may be pro­posed direct­ly to the peo­ple via bal­lot mea­sure, and require only a major­i­ty vote of the peo­ple to be approved.

We at NPI believe this to be very unwise… a plan of gov­ern­ment should not be change­able by major­i­ty vote because a plan of gov­ern­ment is what pro­tects minor­i­ty rights. (Of course, in oth­er cir­cum­stances, major­i­ty rule should prevail).

In Wash­ing­ton, much to the dis­may of Tim Eyman, our Con­sti­tu­tion can­not be amend­ed by bal­lot ini­tia­tive; amend­ments must orig­i­nate in the Leg­is­la­ture and get a two-thirds vote there first, then obtain a major­i­ty vote of the people.

How­ev­er, until the day comes when Ore­gon adopts Wash­ing­ton’s sound approach to amend­ing its Con­sti­tu­tion, Beaver State pro­gres­sives can take advan­tage of the shift in pub­lic opin­ion in favor of the free­dom to mar­ry by putting their own con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment on the bal­lot to reverse the pro­vi­sion adopt­ed in 2004.

And that’s just what they are doing. Their mea­sure is called the Free­dom to Mar­ry and Reli­gious Pro­tec­tion Ini­tia­tive. So far, about 72,000 sig­na­tures have been col­lect­ed. Around valid 116,284 sig­na­tures are need­ed to place the mea­sure on the Novem­ber 2014 gen­er­al elec­tion bal­lot along­side the con­tests for gov­er­nor (John Kitzhaber is up) and U.S. Sen­a­tor (Jeff Merkley is up).

If you are a res­i­dent of Ore­gon and would like to par­tic­i­pate in the cam­paign, vis­it Ore­gon Says “I Do!” to learn how you can help qual­i­fy the mea­sure for the bal­lot. You may also call 1–866-493‑6792.

UPDATE, 3:45 PM: Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell responds to the ruling:

Today, the IRS sent a clear mes­sage: America’s fed­er­al tax sys­tem will not dis­crim­i­nate based on who you love. Today’s deci­sion means that all cou­ples legal­ly mar­ried in Wash­ing­ton state can file a joint fed­er­al tax return, regard­less of where they choose to live. I’m proud to have helped work in sup­port of this deci­sion to bring about much-need­ed clar­i­ty for same-sex cou­ples across the country.

In June, we wit­nessed his­to­ry as the Supreme Court acknowl­edged that same-sex cou­ples deserve equal treat­ment under the law. Today, our nation took anoth­er step toward equal­i­ty for all Amer­i­cans. I will con­tin­ue to work on the Sen­ate Finance Com­mit­tee to ensure equal­i­ty in the tax code, and to make sure fed­er­al laws and reg­u­la­tions treat all mar­ried cou­ples as equals.

Our thanks to Sen­a­tor Cantwell for her work on the Finance Com­mit­tee to improve our tax code, which has not only been prej­u­diced against LGBT cou­ples to date, but also rid­dled with loop­holes and exemptions.