Tax miscellany

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Nancy Van Tine

Hi There,

Since quarterly taxes are due now, the IRS is on my mind, and so I thought that a post on taxation might be apt.

The tax implications of divorce is an area where questions come up consistently.  Taxes affect both support and property division. The rules and results are very different in gay and heterosexual divorces.

In a heterosexual divorce the division of property will be tax free provided the lawyers structure the pension division properly. Child support is always taxable to the payor spouse and tax free to the recipient.  Alimony is deductible from the income of the payor spouse and includable in the recipients income.  There is a very good piece in TAXGIRL (one of my favorite blogs) that goes into more detail.

If you are gay and getting a divorce the situation is very different ( and this is one of the reasons Martha Coakley is suing the Feds) Gideon Alper, a law student writes a terrific blog and he had a post on this as well.

Suffice it to say whether or not there was a third party in the breakdown of your marriage you cannot ignore the taxman who will be the third party in your divorce.

Best,

Nancy  

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Maine Passes Gay Marriage Law

Posted on May 7, 2009 by Nancy Van Tine

Hi there,

It is exciting to see the New England states recognizing the fairness of allowing gay folks to marry. It is a huge step and where people can marry they also inevitably will pay taxes and some of them will later divorce.  In these areas much inequity still remains.

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) impacts the income tax and divorce tax status of gay couples regardless of whether or not they are legally married.

They cannot file federal income taxes as married filing jointly; when, and if, they divorce any transfers of property between them are taxable events, as they are not for heterosexual couples, and there is no deduction for alimony.

All of these are costly, but still it is terrific to have another state recognize gay marriage.

Best,

Nancy

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