My taxes have always been complicated because I'm an author who also holds a full-time job and has to pay alimony and stuff like that. I don't make much money, but still I have to go through all the gyrations.
I've been filing as a single person since I was divorced ten years ago. But last year I married the love of my life, my partner of 7 years, in Maine.
We were both working separately on our taxes a couple of weeks ago using a popular software program, as we have been doing for years now, when it occurred to us that we could actually file jointly with the IRS. Hey, we're married! We didn't get married to take advantage of the breaks, but why not take advantage of the legal opportunities?
I had my doubts that it would affect much, and I certainly didn't want to decrease my refund of several hundred bucks filing singly, but my husband owed the IRS a few hundred bucks filing that way. I thought, well, let's try it out and see what happens.
So I started another federal return filing jointly, and it felt good and right. And lo and behold, because we're married now, at least in the eyes of the State of Maine and the federal government, we actually get a couple grand more back than we would filing singly! Wow! This marriage stuff is cool!
But then reality kicked in--because we live in the state of Georgia, one of the last holdouts against gay marriage.
Find out what happened below the orange hot dog.
Since Georgia does not recognize my marriage, it is one of a number of states that forces you to create not one, but two returns. (Here's the state explanation.) Even if you file a joint federal return, for the Georgia return you each have to create another federal return as though you were filing single, and then use that to figure your state tax.
You have to do FIVE (not two, five) tax returns (joint federal return, two single federal returns, and two single state returns). So your tax prep costs are higher if you're a married LGBTQ person in Georgia, as well as in a number of other states.
Not only that, but it's a huge pain the butt.
Other states use a different system (here are links to those state requirements). Regardless, in these remaining states like Georgia where gay marriage is not recognized, persons in same-sex marriages are getting screwed. And not in a good way.
Here's hoping the Supremes do the right thing when they start hearing the gay marriage cases in April. Simplifying the taxes will be just one less stress point in life for us LGBTQ folks.
Oh, and marriage is worth it!