Janis Cowhey, Modern Family & LGBT Services Group Co-Leader, Interviewed on NY1 News Segment, "Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Brings Changes to Tax, Estate Planning."
NY1 News
By Tara Lynn Wagner
Excerpt:
The recent Supreme Court decision that legalized same sex marriage nationwide also made it a lot easier for those married couples to file their taxes.
“Everything has been simplified. There’s no such thing as same sex married couples, there’s just married couples,” says Janis Cowhey, Partner at Marcum LLP.
Prior to the ruling, those couples residing or working in one of the 13 states that did not allow same sex marriage were forced to jump through many hoops at tax time. They would file jointly at the federal level but then file single returns in the state that did not recognize their union.
“So it was very complicated, and all state returns are based on your federal return – so you ended up having to do a dummy set of returns just to get your state set of returns done,” Cowhey explains.
Those dummy returns are now done away with, along with some other extra calculations.
“You don’t have to trace your deductions out. You don’t have to see who owned the real estate, who paid the taxes, who paid the mortgage. You can look at things as a family unit,” Cowhey says.
And not just financially. Legally, too.
