Just a Matter of Fairness: Tax Consequences of the Revised Community Property Treatment of California Registered Domestic Partners

Abstract

This paper describes the federal tax treatment of California registered domestic partners (RDPs) historically and prospectively. In May 2010 the federal government issued guidance that materially revised the government's prior position of ignoring state law property characterizations and determined that 'the federal tax treatment of community property should apply to California registered domestic partners.' The paper discusses the tax implications of this guidance on registered domestic partners in California and other community property states as well as for the 18,000 same-sex married couples in California. The guidance moves RDPs closer to tax equality with opposite sex married couples in California. Nevertheless, the guidance leaves many questions unanswered.

Keywords: California registered domestic partners, tax equality, marriage equality, same-sex couples, community property law

JEL Classification: J71, J78, K34, J12, H2, H24, D63