Civil unions = tax benefits anyway yeah?
Depends a lot on the area. In many places in the US (and presumably elsewhere) civil unions
don't entail the same suite of benefits (which go beyond tax benefits fairly substantially*) that marriage does.
@Baffler: The real reason the state gives tax breaks for filing jointly honestly has jack-all to do with dependents (though that's one of the nicer smokescreens involved) or various administrative benefits. It has to do with a lovely little thing called "joint and several liability", which means if your
partner screws with the IRS, the IRS can come after
your arse. They take a little less from the pair in exchange for being notably more likely to get some out if one of the two decide to try to stiff the state. There's some social engineering going on, too, but that's the major practical reason. Somewhat less return, notably increased reliability.
*The legal perks of marriage extend to all sorts of things, from the taxes, to inheritance and property ownership differences, hospital visitation, sometimes ruddy credit issues, there's just this fairly massive list, and one that comes with some pretty major tradeoffs, too (i.e. if you file jointly on your taxes and your partner screws up their side of things, the state can come after
you to pay, just as one of very many examples). Is one of the reasons I occasionally advise someone to talk to a lawyer before they talk to a priest (/county official). State-recognized marriage is a
hell of a legal step. Civil unions often don't entail many of the same legal repercussions.
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Topic: Things that made you go "WTF?" today o_O (Read 14839606 times)