what's in a name?
For anyone who says that the legal title of marriage, domestic partnership, commitment doesn't really matter, I have almost 2000 reasons why it matters.
Filing income tax while married in MA means that we have to:
1. Fill out a fakey federal "married filing jointly" return.
2. That data then goes to a real "married filing jointly" state return.
3. Fill out a "single" federal form for me.
4. Fill out a "single" federal form for mary lu.
According to the federal married form, we were owed $779 in a federal refund.
According to our actual single forms, ML gets $520 back, and I owe $1734 (1099 contracting this past year).
So, the fact that the federal government does not view us as married means that we end up missing out on and paying a total of almost $2000 to that very same government. nice.