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Are you ready for this?

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Cincinnatus:
Tonight I was doing my tax return on TurboTax and under the heading "Were you married" there were 7 choices including, Are you (3)In a Registered Domestic Partnership (RDP) (4) In a same-sex marriage .

How about that? Is this on the federal forms or simply something TurboTax asks for whatever reason?

mountaineer:
We need our resident tax expert to weigh in on this. Maybe TurboTax is just preparing for the inevitable: the IRS permitting "married filing jointly" status for just about any type of relationship (no congressional action necessary).

mountaineer:
DailyFinance.com (a HuffPost site):
Tax Tips for Same-Sex Married Couples
By LearnVest
Posted 6:00AM 02/09/13
 
Posted under: Taxes, Tax Laws
 By Alden Wicker

It's been another banner year for gay rights, with Maine, Maryland and Washington saying "I do," to same-sex marriages. Plus, same-sex marriage legislation is currently moving through the Rhode Island legislature.

But there's still a shadow hanging over the celebrations of these victories: In the eyes of the federal government, couples in legal same-sex marriages are still single.

So regardless of what your state's law says, if you're part of such a couple, when you pay taxes to Washington, you're considered single. (And that's only the beginning. When it comes to Social Security survivor benefits, or getting insurance under the coverage of your federally employed partner, you're also still single.)

There are two things you should know: First, this makes your taxes more complicated, and hence might require you to hire an accountant and/or pay more in fees for them to wade through the situation. Second, according to an analysis by H&R Block, same-sex couples pay as much as $6,000 more in taxes than heterosexual couples.   ...

Oceander:
This is probably for the state returns since TurboTax covers both federal and state.

BTW, be careful with TurboTax; if you've got a plain vanilla return - W2 and mutual funds - you should be ok; anything more funky and you'll have to be careful.

Cincinnatus:
Thanks for the caveat on TurboTax, Oceander. I know you meant it as a universal warning but since I mentioned I am specifically using it, I will specifically thank you.

In any case my return this year is pretty vanilla. Over the last several years I did use a CPA but a business I had is no longer in operation so I don't need that level of skill anymore. Still, your warning is quite timely.

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