California’s Legislature passed domestic partners tax legislation earlier this year. For 2007 (not 2006), qualified domestic partners are required to file as Married, Filing Jointly on their California state tax returns. However, they must continue to file as single on their federal tax forms.
What can possibly go wrong?
Yesterday, a “Town Hall” meeting was held in Sacramento. Participating in it were tax practitioners, a software programmer from Intuit’s Lacerte division, gay and lesbian advocates, and staffers from the Franchise Tax Board. The San Jose Mercury covered the meeting.
Here is just one of the gems that the Mercury reported:
“This saga is only beginning rather than ending,” said FTB attorney Pat Kusiak. “This is an evolving issue. It will be many years before issues are resolved, and they may need to be resolved by litigation.”
As the Mercury noted, domestic partners will have to compute a California joint AGI that will be hypothetical. For domestic partners who have very simple returns this won’t be a problem. However, if you have complex returns, this is going to be a nightmare. Gregg Gamble of Lacerte is quoted as saying, “It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
It’s probably not the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, but it’s close. And it’s not an issue that can be postponed—tax preparers will need to begin tackling this when we calculate estimated tax payments for 2007 for Californians impacted by this.
Additionally, it will likely be the domestic partners who will be paying for the additional work. Tax preparers charge based on the complexity of the returns—really, the amount of work (time) spent on the return. If I have to prepare two returns, it’s going to take me significantly longer than if I have to prepare one return.
Unfortunately, I don’t have high hopes for the California Legislature to address this issue. I hope I’m wrong, but don’t bet on it.