Rainbow bLAWg

The South Carolina Department of Revenue as decided that Same-sex couples legally married in other states but living in South Carolina will have to file state taxes as if they were single.

In a landmark ruling last year, the Supreme Court threw out most of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denied same-sex couples many benefits. In response, the Internal Revenue Service decided to allow couples to file their federal returns jointly beginning in 2014.

While the U.S. Supreme Court held that the federal government cannot refuse to respect the marriages of married same-sex couples, states of inequality are left to decide how it will treat tax returns on a local level. The State of South Carolina has decided to continue to make it more difficult for same-sex families because of their state DOMA. This will forced couples to lie on a federal document, the act of filing will be more difficult and complicated, and will surely cost more if they rely on a tax preparer. We assume that the state will not reimburse the families for this extra expense.

This will also cost the government more. The Department of Revenue will have to spend thousands of dollars to process all these additional paper returns. Returns that do not match will be flagged for automatic audit, which will require a manual processing, creating a potential administrative nightmare. If a return needs to be amended at a later date, multiple returns will again have to be prepared.

South Carolina Equality, a gay rights advocacy group, criticized the move, calling it separate and unequal, and State House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland County, has introduced a bill that would reverse the decision, if passed.

This is just a mean-spirited and unnecessary burden for South Carolina families. Hopefully voters of the state are watching closely so they can elect more mature individuals to represent them in the next election.

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Carrie Stone