Specifically, the agency said nearly 58,000 couples who are registered as domestic partners in California must combine their income and each report half of it on their separate tax returns. Same-sex couples account for an estimated 95% of the state's domestic partnerships; partnership status is also available to heterosexual couples in which one partner is over age 62.
"For the first time ever, I'm able to file federal taxes that, in a small way, acknowledges what's going on in my relationship," said Eric Rey of Berkeley, Calif. Mr. Rey and his partner requested the IRS ruling, first during the Bush administration and again this year.
This is part of the problem with the federal government's increasing encroachment on the individual. It's worth noting that the federal government didn't have anything to do with defining marraige until the income tax became law in 1913 (along with the 17th Amendment). The more the federal government becomes a part of people's lives, the more that federal politicians will sell this or that benefit in exchange for votes.
The less the federal government "acknowledges what's going on in my relationship", the happier I'll be.
The federal government has shown that it cannot properly administer an income tax. The original income tax started as a simple formula, and it has exploded in complexity as the federal government realized that it could create exceptions for a variety of special interests.
Limiting the federal leviathan begins with repealing the 17th Amendment, so that the Senate will once again be incentivized to fulfill its duty of protecting the 9th and 10th Amendments.
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