From the Indianapolis Star:
After recent federal decisions allowed same-sex couples to file federal tax returns jointly starting next year, Indiana will leave it up to them to figure out how to individually file their state tax returns.
Indiana has been among states grappling with how same-sex couples should handle state tax returns that are based heavily on the federal form.
The Indiana Department of Revenue will require each member of a same-sex couple to file a single-filer state tax return. But officials stopped short of creating a tax worksheet to help married same-sex couples recalculate their joint income before they file separate state tax forms, as Wisconsin and Michigan have done.
That is the approach recommended by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation to help reduce confusion.
Department of Revenue spokesman Robert Dittmer says the agency's guidance simply follows Indiana's same-sex marriage ban and does not recognize same-sex marriages granted in other states.
Gay-rights advocacy group Indiana Equality Action says the new tax dynamic creates an attempted "separate but equal" system in Indiana that could spur a new legal challenge of the gay marriage ban. The group's attorneys have been researching the matter.
Rick Sutton, the group's director, said he had hoped that state officials would decide to maintain federal parity by allowing joint state tax filing.
That was unlikely, given that Indiana law bans same-sex marriage and the state could vote on a pending constitutional amendment to further enshrine the ban next year.
But Missouri, which has a constitutional ban, nonetheless took the step of allowing joint filing last week. Gov. Jay Nixon issued an executive order allowing couples to file joint state returns. The Democrat's step was met with controversy from opponents of same-sex marriage.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled that the federal government must recognize legally performed same-sex marriages. Under a resulting policy announced Aug. 29 by the Internal Revenue Service, legally married gay couples will be able to file a joint federal tax return for the first time next year — no matter where they currently live.
That creates a challenge in Indiana, which is among 24 states that have gay-marriage bans and also use state income-tax forms that rely on the federal tax return form as the basis for income calculations.
The state's new guidance, issued on the Department of Revenue's website this afternoon, advises couples who file federal returns with a married filing status to also fill out sample federal single-filer forms. To do so, they must divide their joint income.
They then can refer to those sample federal returns when they fill out Indiana's tax return for single-filers. The website offers some advice for dividing up income and specifies which lines on the federal form affect the state return.
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http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2013/11/21/indiana-same-sex-couples-must-file-separate-tax-returns/3667491/
