Massachusetts Department of Revenue Finalizes Guidance on Same-Sex Marriage.The Massachusetts Department of Revenue finalized See finalization. its Technical Information Release regarding the tax implications of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts Same-sex marriage in the U.S. state of Massachusetts began on May 17, 2004, as a result of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health . While the Release focuses primarily on issues concerning personal tax items (e.g., joint tax returns and estate taxes), the Release does address certain employee benefit issues. The Release confirms that as a general matter an employer-provided benefit that is extended to a same-sex spouse will be excludable from Massachusetts gross income if that benefit would be excludable from Federal gross income when extended to an opposite-sex spouse. So, for example, because employer-provided health insurance benefits provided to an employee and an opposite-sex spouse are excluded from Federal gross income, health insurance coverage extended to a same-sex spouse, even if included in income for Federal purposes, will be excludable from Massachusetts gross income. The Release also addresses the extent to which employee contributions toward medical coverage for a same-sex spouse may be made on a pre-tax basis for Massachusetts tax purposes. For Federal tax purposes, employee contributions for health insurance coverage for a non-dependent same-sex spouse or a non-dependent child of a same-sex spouse would not be excludable from gross income and could not be paid on a pre-tax basis under a cafeteria (Section 125) plan. The Release states that those premiums that must be paid on an after-tax basis After-tax basis The comparison basis used to analyze the net after-tax returns on a corporate taxable bond and a municipal tax-free bond. for Federal tax purposes may be paid on a pre-tax basis for Massachusetts tax purposes. Finally, the Release states that any amounts excludable from Massachusetts gross income attributable to benefits of the type described above would also not be subject to Massachusetts state tax withholding and that the resulting reduced Massachusetts gross income figure should be reported on the relevant employee's Form W-2. The full text of the Release can be found at http://www.dor.state.ma.us/rul_reg/tir/TIR_04_17.htm. This article, which may be considered advertising under the ethical rules of certain jurisdictions, is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute the rendering of legal advice or other professional advice by Goodwin Procter Goodwin Procter LLP is a law firm based in the United States, with a team of 750 attorneys serving clients through offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Palo Alto. LLP LLP - Lower Layer Protocol or its attorneys. [c] 2004 Goodwin Procter LLP. All rights reserved.Goodwin Procter LLP, a firm of 500 lawyers, has one of the largest financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. practices in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Goodwin Procter LLP Exchange Place Boston MA 02109 UNITED STATES Tel: 6175701000 Fax: 6175231231 E-mail: JTrillos@goodwinprocter.com URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : www.goodwinprocter.com (c) Mondaq Ltd, 2004 - Tel. +44 (0)20 7820 7733 - http://www.mondaq.com |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion