Is there a lawyer here. This will be the first income tax year that i will be filing with my spouse. Ive been married over 15yrs, and we were always filing joint, but i have my name changed and my gender is now female, so i called the IRS and they said that they only thing they could find is that it states that a marriage is the union of a man and a woman, so the Fed gov doesnt acknowledge marriages between two of the same sex, but i was a male when we married, so couldnt we still file joint? Im in MI and my CPA long standing just called me after hold my tax paperwork for over a wk tell me he could not be my CPA anymore. I will be owing big time this year and im scrambling for a new CPA but no one will take me on. I need to make this happen before i leave on the 31st cause i wont be back until the 12th of April so i have to get the paperwork to someone b4 i leave. I appreciate any advice.
I am no lawyer, but I believe this is the exact sort of thing the DOMA (Defence of Marriage Act) was designed to prevent. Unless there is some sort of move for dismissal of a marriage, it is still valid in that state, but the federal government doesn't want to have anything to do with that unfortunately.
Even if you live in a state that allows same sex marriage, you'd still have to file separately since the federal government doesn't think the LGBT community is worthy of the same rights as other people.
In 2008, my ex and I filed a joint return, and I had my name changed only. I think that it depends on your state more then the Feds.
You could always file as married, and then if it gets rejected or something, find some type of ACLU lawyer to take the case, get it to the supreme court, and have DOMA ruled unconstitutional. Just saying :).
Oh, crap. I'm in the same situation and never even thought about the ramifications. I have always been told that if your marriage was legal at the time, then it can't be dissolved without your consent. But now we're talking about the feds.
You might shoot off an e-mail to the Transgender Law Center and see what they say. In fact, I'm going over to their site right now to see if they have any canned advice on this.
Quote from: Ketsy on March 22, 2010, 11:46:44 PM
You could always file as married, and then if it gets rejected or something, find some type of ACLU lawyer to take the case, get it to the supreme court, and have DOMA ruled unconstitutional. Just saying :).
Even though DOMA says two people of the same gender cannot file, and technically it would be illegal, I actually highly doubt that they would actually reject the filing. Something tells me that they would want to avoid lawsuits, that is if they even bother to check the genders on the tax forms anyway.
There are several suits against DOMA right now, and I hope one of them succeeds. I mean you'd think that since we have a democratic majority and Obama did pledge in his campaign that he would attempt to overturn DOMA that it would have been done already. I can't see how the federal government can tell the states that they don't have to acknowledge laws from other states without amending the constitution but, that is exactly what DOMA does.
@arch DOMA doesn't give them the power to dissolve your marriage, just in the eyes of the federal government if you are technically the same sex as your spouse then you don't have a marriage to being with. The feds cannot dissolve what they say doesn't exist.
The state you live in, generally would never make a motion to dissolve a marriage unless it was requested by someone, usually you or your spouse but, in some states the attorney general or other state agencies have the power to call a marriage into question (usually this is a leftover mechanism from states which had illegal interracial marriage)
Only an idiot, or someone with very good legal representation goes up against the IRS. They don't fool around. The government needs the money. And, they don't fool around. They have the power to freeze all your accounts, seize your paycheck, and take any other real property you might own. When you go to do this, make sure the legal beagles are all on same leash.
So, to be sure, take any money you might owe, and put it into a separate account, so in case they don't like it, or flag it, you can pay them right away.
^lol, I think you are perhaps bein a bit paranoid, as i havent filed even yet. I will be owning this yr big time, but since my jerk of a CPA decided I wasnt worthy anymore because of my sex change, he left me scrambling for a new one and i leave on bus very soon, so i have to get this taken care of by the end on the wk. As far as State is concerned (I talked to a treasury person today) they told me they go by whatever the Feds say. It is the Fed Gov that determines. No one so far has a clear answer. I have legal name change as well as birth cert. Everything on my person is Michelle and gender marker is on both drivers license and birth cert as female now. Maybe "one" that is married and not getting separated or divorced should note not to get the birth cert changed, because i would tend to think that this would be perhaps the only disqualifying issue. I have since found a CPA, and he is going to file us jointly and i have to separate the insurance i paid out last yr and my medical expenses separately. He said if i had SRS last yr that he will claim it as a deduction and to list all the cosmetics and medical expenses and prescriptions separately.
Michelle,
I'm glad you've got everything resolved for now. What a jerk your CPA is/was. :shakes head: I hope you have fun on your trip! Please keep us posted on what happens after you file and everything.
Thanks!
~Jasmine
For the record, I'm a huge (HUGE) believer in getting a CPA who is also a lawyer, as a CPA can only provide expert testimony in court, where a lawyer can defend you (and their) actions.
And, you can take all the stuff you want, it just depends on it getting flagged. I took concert tickets for years (it's my job) and got called on it one year (guess the IRS didn't see where hundreds of dollars of Dead tickets were a tax deduction) but I did win that one. Ran into the same problem writing off a big screen LCD TV and sound system a few years ago, but all I had to do was show the credits of a couple of DVDs where I was mentioned and that flew. But still, they are not a fun bunch to deal with.
Quote from: Michelle Hayden on March 23, 2010, 12:55:05 PM
Maybe "one" that is married and not getting separated or divorced should note not to get the birth cert changed, because i would tend to think that this would be perhaps the only disqualifying issue.
Gee, lucky me; I was born in a state that won't change my birth certificate, so I haven't even tried. Guess I'll keep that in mind if I do get hassled.
We're only filing as married this year and next. After that, the divorce kicks in and we don't need to worry about it anymore.
^That is the prob here..Not too many (very small %) of ppl stay married after transition unless both are bi. That is being the MTF's. Not many if any know of any direct law objecting to this other than some article in the gov saying that they only determine marriage to be that of a "union of a man and a woman". It does not state any particulars. As far as getting a CPA that is a lawyer as well can be very expensive, but i do know a tax lawyer, but he doesnt file ppl's returns, but if i have an issue, after sending the finished forms in, i will def hit him up. It is unfortunate i have or anyone has to go thru this. I can see if i were wanting to get married to same sex, but i was married b4 this happened, so they should acknowledge our marriage status.
I believe it depends on the state. For example in Kansas your chromosonal sex defines whether or not you're married (which means ftm and mtf TS' cannot marry those of their opposite sex/gender visibly). But I would call a lawyer or some legal advocacy group first to be sure in your state.
Quote from: armozel on March 28, 2010, 10:29:43 AM
I believe it depends on the state. For example in Kansas your chromosonal sex defines whether or not you're married (which means ftm and mtf TS' cannot marry those of their opposite sex/gender visibly).
This sort of thing cracks me up. Unless they do a chromosome analysis, they really don't know, do they? I've also heard that in the "chromosome states," you can't get married if your chromosomes are known to be anything BUT XX or XY.
At any rate, I think I'll shoot off an e-mail to TLC and see if they can direct me to some resources. But it's getting late in the fiscal year--I think my ex and I are going to file jointly no matter what. After all, we have the marriage certificate and have been filing jointly for five or six tax years.