Tax - Filing Status and Your Life Partnership

A person's marital status is determined at the end of the year and that status is then applied to the whole tax year.

Federal government and MOST state governments consider marriage as a heterosexual relationship between a husband and wife only, though they use the uni-sexual term "spouse" most of the time in the law.

MARRIAGE

Where marriage means union between a male and a female only, the spouses have the choice to file a joint return, OR married filing separately. The recent trend is to give more tax advantages to joint filers.

DIVORCE, SEPARATION

A couple is considered divorced during the year only under a final decree of divorce or separate maintenance.

If any divorced partner does not remarry by the end of the year - that person is considered unmarried for that whole tax year. The filing status in this case is single.

If a single person takes care for a child or parent or a qualified dependent, then filing as a head of household may be advantageous.

Provisional decree of separation is not considered as final. So, you are not considered as divorced even if living separately under a provisional decree. For purposes of taxation you are treated as married living separately.

For such persons the option is married filing separately, if not filing jointly with the separated spouse.

If you are taking care of a child, parent or other qualified dependent, then you may be able to avail the head of the household.

WIDOW/WIDOWER

If your spouse dies during the year, you are treated as married for that entire year and may file a joint return for you and your deceased spouse, assuming you have not remarried before year's end. You may not be allowed some of the exemptions previously available to the deceased spouse.

COMMON LAW MARRIAGE

If at the end of the year, you live together in a common law marriage
- EITHER recognized by your state's law
- OR by the state where marriage began
you are considered as married.

So, unlike the types of unions described below, federal government is willing to recognize common law marriages and allow a joint tax return PROVIDED your state is recognizing your common law marriage.

Such states include: Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, and Texas. Also, District of Columbia.

NON-HETEROSEXUAL UNIONS APPROVED IN SELECTED STATES BUT NOT APPROVED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

A minority of states have approved non-heterosexual or other different forms of marital unions or partnerships.

These include:

Registered Domestic Partnerships
Civil Union
Same Sex Marriage

Couples united or living under such laws in those states may have to file more than one federal return in addition to the state return.

Returns to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

1. A federal return by one partner with filing status as single.
2. A federal return by the second partner with filing status as single.

Returns to be filed with the State Tax Department

3. A third federal return with the second partner's name and details against the lines for spousal information. The filing status can be either Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately.
4. The tax return for the State

Only 10 out of the 50 states and District of Columbia have these federal requirements. However, those states vary in what they recognize as alternatives to heterosexual marriages.

Registered Domestic Partnerships: Oregon
Registered Domestic Partnerships, Same-Sex Marriages: California, District Columbia, Nevada, Washington
Civil Union: New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont
Civil Union, Same-Sex Marriages: Connecticut
Same-Sex Marriages: Iowa, Massachusetts

REGISTERED DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP (RDP) is registered between two individuals who live together but are not united by marriage or civil union. Usually gender may not be a consideration here. So, RDP need not always mean relationships between same gender partners. In some jurisdictions, heterosexual relationships also are included. Legislation's main objective appears to be giving due recognition to the contribution of one partner to the wealth and prosperity of another.

PLEASE NOTE: This is an introductory article on a purely tax-related subject and has no intention of going into the advantages or disadvantages of any type of personal relationship. Some other states not mentioned here may have legislation debated or in progress and those may not be discussed here. For more definitive information, please refer to the resources provided by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the federal requirements and by the state tax departments for state requirements.