Santa Clara Law professor Patricia A. Cain has launched a new blog, the Same Sex Tax Law Blog. This should be an extremely valuable resource for all the same-sex couples who are looking for some advocacy and equity in our tax system. Check out her inaugural post courtesy of The Tax Prof Blog.
The Internal Revenue Code provides numerous special provisions for spouses. At the current time none of these provisions applies to same-sex couples. Even legally married same-sex couples, residing in states where their marriages are recognized, cannot claim spousal status under the federal tax laws. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex couples as spouses. Until DOMA is either repealed or found unconstitutional, the tax treatment of many same-sex couples is a subject of much confusion and contention.
I have been thinking about these issues for a long time and am creating this blog to enable me to share those thoughts more broadly with tax practitioners who are interested in this topic. As issues arise or as questions occur to me, I will write individual blog posts on each issue or question. Short "white papers" dealing with specific topics in more detail will be linked to the blog. And important IRS rulings and cases that affect tax questions for same-sex couples will also be linked.