Every state that collects income tax recognizes same-sex marriage for tax purposes, and so does the federal government. Since the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, all 50 states and the District of Columbia must license and recognize marriages between same-sex couples, and that recognition carries into how you file.1Justia. Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015) Nine states have no personal income tax, so the question doesn’t come up there. In every other state, a legally married same-sex couple files using a married status, on the same terms as any other married couple.
How Universal Recognition Came About
Federal recognition arrived first. In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in United States v. Windsor, which had barred the federal government from treating same-sex couples as married.2Justia. United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. 744 (2013) Months later, the IRS issued Revenue Ruling 2013-17, declaring that a same-sex couple legally married in any state authorizing such marriages would be treated as married for all federal tax purposes, even if the couple later moved to a state that didn’t then recognize the marriage.3Internal Revenue Service. Revenue Ruling 2013-17
That left an odd gap for two years. A couple married in New York but living in a non-recognition state might be married on their federal return and single on their state return. Obergefell closed the gap by holding that the Fourteenth Amendment requires every state to license same-sex marriages and to recognize those performed elsewhere.1Justia. Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015) Since 2015, state and federal filing status have lined up.
What Filing Status You Must Use
Your marital status on December 31 controls the whole year. If you’re legally married on that date, the IRS limits you to two choices: married filing jointly or married filing separately.4Internal Revenue Service. Filing Status Filing single is not an option. The same rule applies on the state return in every state with an income tax.
There is one exception. A married person who lived apart from their spouse for the entire last six months of the year, maintained a home for a dependent child, and filed a separate return can qualify as head of household.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 7703 – Determination of Marital Status Head of household comes with wider brackets and a larger standard deduction than married filing separately, which matters for couples separated but not yet divorced.
Joint or Separate: The Marriage Bonus and Penalty
Most married couples file jointly because it produces a lower combined tax. Married filing separately uses narrower brackets and disqualifies you from several credits, including the earned income tax credit and education credits. The situations where separate filing actually helps are specific: one spouse has large medical expenses that need a lower AGI floor to deduct, or one spouse doesn’t want to be liable for the other’s tax debt.
Recognition doesn’t guarantee a lower bill. When one spouse earns significantly more than the other, joint filing tends to shift income into lower brackets and create a marriage bonus. A couple earning $150,000 and $30,000 will typically pay less combined than two single filers with those same incomes. The reverse happens when both spouses earn similar amounts: combining two $90,000 incomes on a joint return can push the couple into higher brackets than each would face alone. That’s the marriage penalty. It hits same-sex couples the same way it hits everyone else, so it’s worth running the numbers both ways.
Community Property Rules When You File Separately
If you file separately, the state you live in determines how you split income between the two returns. Nine states follow community property rules, under which most income earned by either spouse during the marriage belongs equally to both: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.6Internal Revenue Service. Publication 555 – Community Property
In those states, each spouse reports half of the couple’s total community income on a separate return, regardless of who actually earned it. If one spouse earned $120,000 and the other earned nothing, each reports $60,000. You also attach Form 8958 showing how you divided the income.6Internal Revenue Service. Publication 555 – Community Property The split applies to both federal and state returns. Every other state uses a common law system, where wages and salary stay on the return of the person who earned them.
Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships Are Not Marriages Federally
If your relationship is a civil union or a registered domestic partnership rather than a marriage, the tax picture changes. The IRS does not treat these as marriages, even when a state grants them marriage-like rights.7Internal Revenue Service. Answers to Frequently Asked Questions for Registered Domestic Partners and Individuals in Civil Unions Partners in these arrangements file federally as single, or as head of household if they qualify. They cannot file as married on the federal return.8Internal Revenue Service. Publication 555 – Community Property
Some states allow domestic partners or parties to a civil union to file the state return using a married status. That creates a two-track exercise: prepare a hypothetical federal joint return, use those figures to complete the state return, and then file the actual federal returns as single. Registered domestic partners in California, Nevada, and Washington face an additional rule. Because those states apply community property principles to registered domestic partnerships, the IRS requires those partners to use community property splitting on their federal returns, even though each files as single.6Internal Revenue Service. Publication 555 – Community Property
Estate, Gift, and Social Security Benefits That Ride Along
Marriage recognition matters beyond the annual return. The unlimited marital deduction lets you transfer any amount of property to your spouse during life or at death without triggering gift or estate tax, with no cap and no reduction of your lifetime exemption.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 2523 – Gift to Spouse The same unlimited deduction applies to property passing to a surviving spouse through an estate.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 2056 – Bequests to Surviving Spouse
Portability is the other major benefit. The federal estate tax exemption for 2026 is $15,000,000 per person, and any unused portion can pass to the surviving spouse, effectively doubling the couple’s combined shield.11Internal Revenue Service. Estate Tax For gifts to anyone other than a spouse, the annual exclusion for 2026 is $19,000 per recipient, and married couples can elect gift splitting to combine their exclusions and give up to $38,000 per recipient without filing a gift tax return.12Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax
Social Security spousal and survivor benefits also apply on the same terms. A surviving spouse can receive benefits based on the deceased spouse’s earnings record, and a lower-earning spouse can claim spousal benefits during retirement.13Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits for Same-Sex Partners and Spouses For couples who were together long before they could legally marry, the shorter official marriage may affect eligibility for certain survivor benefits that require at least nine months of marriage.
Amending Earlier Returns Filed With the Wrong Status
After Windsor, the IRS allowed legally married same-sex couples to amend prior returns to file as married and claim refunds for overpaid tax.14Internal Revenue Service. Same-Sex Marriages Now Recognized for Federal Tax Purposes The general statute of limitations for a refund claim is three years from the date you filed the original return or two years from when you paid the tax, whichever is later. For most couples the window on those earlier overpayments has closed. If you recently married and filed using the wrong status, you still have the standard three-year window to amend.