The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service to now recognize same-sex marriages for federal tax purposes (regardless of what state the couple lives in).
The Treasury’s announcement last week comes after the Supreme Court’s ruling back in June and applies to all federal taxes; (including income, gift and estate taxes), personal and dependent exemptions and deductions, employee benefits, IRA contributions and tax credits. Individual state laws still apply though for state filing purposes.
There is now a tax exclusion for employer-paid health insurance, which many same-sex couples previously bought on an after-tax basis (a cost upwards of $1,000 per couple).
Furthermore, same-sex couples will be afforded the opportunity to amend their tax returns filed between the years 2010-2012, if they wish to.
Important to note is that the new ruling does not affect couples who are in civil unions or domestic partnerships, as opposed to legal marriages. The changes take effect today, September 16th.
For the article, as reported by Richard Wolf of USA Today click here:
By Kim Onisko, CPA
Kim Onisko is a Partner with Onisko & Scholz, Certified Public Accountants, LLP. You can find him on Google+. He has been in public accounting for over 20 years and has a specialty in forensic accounting.