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Same-Sex Couples Pay More, But Get Less at Tax Time

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 12, 2007, New York, NY

PRESS CONTACT:
Evan Wolfson
Executive Director, Freedom to Marry
Tel: 212-851-8418; Mobile: 646-263-5552
Email: evan@freedomtomarry.org

(New York, April 12, 2007) — As Americans from coast to coast rush to meet the upcoming April 17th deadline to file their 2006 tax returns, Freedom to Marry, the national partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide, is asking the question, Which boxes can you check?, in order to highlight the real and tangible effects of excluding same-sex couples and their families from marriage.

Especially at tax time, marriage discrimination affects same-sex couples and their families — as well as their employers and tax preparers. Married couples can file taxes jointly and be taxed at a lower level, but same-sex couples cannot because they are excluded from marriage; same-sex couples also lose out on the ability to collect each other's Social Security, receive automatic inheritance rights, or transfer property without adverse tax consequences.

"Couples who have made a commitment in life deserve an equal commitment under the law. That commitment is called marriage," said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry and author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People's Right to Marry. "Being denied the freedom to marry is not only a deprivation of security and respect, but also an added obstacle in the path of people seeking to care for their loved ones, including their children. The inequality is especially evident as we all scramble to meet our obligations under the law, such as at tax time."

Such is the case with Gina and her partner Jean, and their two young adopted children. Gina and her family live in Connecticut, and even though Gina and Jean have a civil union under Connecticut's state law, they cannot claim their daughters on an IRS joint tax return. And each of their family cars contains, at all times, an envelope of legal documents (which cost thousands of dollars in legal fees to create) to protect their family in medical emergencies if they cross state lines and their civil union is void.

"With all of these added expenses and obstacles, this same-sex couple and their kids still do not have the full range of protections and the respect that would come with two words: 'I do,'" noted Wolfson.

To learn more about Gina and her family's story, or to set up an interview with them or other couples struggling at tax time, contact Megan Kinninger at 212-851-8418, or via email at megan@freedomtomarry.org. For more information about the effects of excluding same-sex couples and their families from marriage, log on to www.freedomtomarry.org or visit Freedom to Marry's webpage dedicated to Tax Time: Which boxes can YOU check?

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Freedom to Marry is the gay and non-gay partnership working to win marriage equality nationwide. Launched in 2003, Freedom to Marry is headed by Evan Wolfson, nationally recognized as a central "architect of the marriage equality movement." Freedom to Marry guides and focuses this social justice movement on a nationwide level, serving as a strategy and support center for national, state, and local partners, a catalyst that drives and shapes the national debate on marriage equality, and an alliance-builder fostering support from non-gay allies.