Taxes, and a Marriage Unrecognized
“She Waited 40 Years to Marry, Then When Her Wife Died, the Tax Bill Came.” I mean, with a headline like that, how could you not read this story? Edith Windsor, the lovely 83-year-old woman featured in the article, had to pay $500,000 in estate taxes after her wife died, due to the Defense of Marriage Act, which did not recognize her relationship with the woman she loved for 40 years. Hopefully, our children will read these stories in the archives one day, and think about how crazy our laws once were.
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Previously on The Billfold
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i’m reading it now and thinking about how crazy our laws are. DUMB.
Well that is a very depressing story. I hope this lady gets her monties back.
An emphatic “ughhhhhh” basically sums up my feelings on this.
About 40% of the taxes on this estate are those assessed by the State of New York. Hence, the same state which, unlike most other states, recognizes same sex marriage is prepared to tax the daylights out of every marriage. This is because New York taxes estates at the death of the first spouse, including same sex marriages. The rest of the estate taxes are federal. These estate taxes were enacted under a President who recently endorsed same sex marriage, unlike his predecessor, who never endorsed same sex marriage but did persuade the Congress to repeal federal estate taxes altogether.
It’s hard for me to feel a whole lot of pity for rich people paying taxes… maybe, for the sake of equality, spouses of either gender should not be exempted from estate taxes.