Abstract
The U.S. Supreme Court, in Obergefell v. Hodges, ruled that the fundamental right to marry is constitutionally guaranteed to same-sex couples. However, neither this decision nor subsequent Treasury regulations specifically address commonlaw marriage (currently allowed in 11 states), the majority of which previously required marriage to be between opposite-sex couples. After Obergefell ruled such requirements unconstitutional, nine of those states modified their common-law statutes to include same-sex couples. Because the federal government has long recognized common-law marriage, this paper discusses prospective and retroactive income and wealth-transfer tax planning opportunities for eligible, common-law married, same-sex couples that qualify to file as married filing jointly for the current tax year and any open tax year for which they would have been considered common-law married. This manuscript presents a legal discussion, along with a variety of examples and tax planning strategies for samesex couples in common-law marriage states.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 72-88 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | ATA Journal of Legal Tax Research |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2016 |
Keywords
- Common-law marriage
- Obergefell
- Retroactive tax planning
- Same-sex marriage