(Washington, D.C.) As same-sex couples rush to file their taxes before the April 15 deadline the disparity between them and their heterosexual counterparts becomes abundantly clear: Gay families pay on average higher taxes and get fewer benefits.
A joint study by the Human Rights Campaign and the Urban Institute also shows that when a gay or lesbian parent dies leaving a young child behind, the loss of Social Security survivor benefits to the family can range from $100,000 to $250,000, depending on whether state laws permitted both parents to establish a legal relationship to the surviving child.
In addition, same-sex couples with children are far less likely to have access to employer-sponsored health insurance for their families than married couples - and those who do pay hundreds of dollars more in taxes for it.
"Our families are taxed on health insurance for our partners, are unable to secure Social Security survivor benefits and pay more federal income tax when one parent stays at home than married couples. Now, the president and many in Congress want to tamper with the Constitution to make that kind of treatment permanent," said HRC President Cheryl Jacques.
Same-sex couples are raising children in 96 percent of all counties in the nation, according to the 2000 census. The South has the highest percentage of same-sex couples who are raising children, followed by the Midwest.
Los Angeles County, Cook County, Ill., and Harris County, Texas, - President Bush's home county - are the three counties with the greatest numbers of same-sex couples with children. Miami-Dade County also figures among the top 10, even though Florida has the nation's most discriminatory laws against same-sex parents.
But while the Human Rights Campaign was pushing for equality in taxation, a conservative political action group was calling on the government to ensure that same-sex couples who married in San Francisco or in Canada did not file joint income tax returns.
Public Advocate in a letter to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark W. Everson asks the IRS to investigate same-sex couples who submit any tax form filed as "married - filing jointly".
Calling gay marriages "fraudulent", the letter, says: "The potential for such persons attempting to evade federal and state income tax obviously is quite significant. By declaring themselves "married," and submitting joint federal tax returns, for example, such persons could attempt to benefit from the "married filing jointly" or "married filing separately" federal income tax rates currently available only to a "husband" and a "wife" who are legitimately married."
"We assume that you will direct the Internal Revenue Service to undertake appropriate measures to investigate any such possible unlawful activity," the letter concludes.
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