They, in conjunction with the Treasury Department, announced this week the rules for filing your federal imcome tax return in 2013. If you were married in a place where the marriage was legal, then you can elect to file a joint income tax return. This is called the 'place of celebration' approach, which I think sounds very festive for a Federal agancy so associated with grimness. It means that they will consider you married no matter where you live if your marriage is recognized as legal in the place that it was performed--which does seem like a reasonable characteristic. Since one of my sons recently obtained an on-line ordination in the Church of the Latter Day Dude (also known as Dudeism, a religion inspired by The Big Lebowski) for no money what-so-ever, and is able to perform marriages in over half the states, it can't be that hard to find someone to legally marry you. You just have to be somewhere that recognizes you are marriagable.
Thirteen states and the District of Columbia recognize and perform same sex marriages--with the IRS ruling, it means that if you are gay and live in a state where same sex marriage is not recognized, you can go to a state where it is and get married, the go home and file your taxes jointly. Whether or not this actually saves you money or costs you money (the more similar a couple's income is the less financially beneficial it is to them to file jointly), it confers a sameness to the union and the members of that union that is priceless. And for those whom it does make a big financial difference, the IRS specifically stated that same sex couples who fit their definition of married can re-file as married for their 2010, 2011, and 2012 tax returns (provided they were actually married in those years). Thank you Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan, Kennedy, and Breyer.
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