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Today is tax day.
For the first time, we were allowed to file as a married couple.
Partly, anyway.
We did of course have to pay the "marriage penalty." I am okay with that for equality, and for the ability to protect my family (even when she is singing "What Does The Fox Say?", which she is as I type this).
But the extra that I am not okay with paying?
Having to get an accountant to do our taxes because they are now too complicated for me to risk doing.
And they are too complicated because we file as married federally and in Maryland, where we are now residents (yay! Full citizenship!).
But in Virginia and South Carolina, where we own property, we must file as single, as strangers. As though I picked a random person to buy property with.
And in order to file as single, not only do we file two returns instead of one, but we also must do FAKE single federal forms in order to figure out what we owe as single people. Which, of course, we are not.
South Carolina and North Carolina have been running this awareness campaign called #Married364. As in, we are married every day of the year except tax day.
And as one of my best friends, who is also legally married, on that day, we are forced to lie.
There have been a couple of articles that I wanted to share with you about how we are chipping away at inequality.
The first is from the Social Security Administration, which according to an article in the Washington Blade, is now processing claims for death benefits for legally married same-sex spouses.
IF
...they are in a marriage equality state. Those not in a marriage equality state are having their applications put on hold.
You might remember some months ago they announced that they would process retirement benefits for legally-married same-sex spouses. This moves that process along to include death benefits.
Of course, in the land where separate is not equal, those in civil unions or domestic partnerships need not apply.
Second is an article this week in Huffington Post on what the DOMA ruling means for legally-married same-sex couples.
There are lots of ways where this ruling will save folks money. And couples are allowed to re-file for their returns from the last three years if that will result in a higher refund for them.
I don't think it will make much difference for us since we earn very similar salaries. But man do I wish that option had been around when I was still in grad school and my wife was working!
What it does mean for us though is that my days of doing our taxes are done. With property in three states, two of which don't have marriage equality, so having to file jointly for federal and one state and separately for the other...it makes my head hurt thinking about it.
And finally, I just wanted to share with you a link from Time magazine. They nominated Edith Windsor as a runner-up for their person of the year. I personally think she should have won. Her case, which resulted in DOMA being struck down, has certainly affected my life personally in many profound ways.
Take time to watch both videos.
They are beautiful.
Love won.
