DOMA & Tax: No Estate Tax for Same Sex Couples

A federal judge in Manhattan struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act in a case involving estate taxes.  U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones ruled that the provision denying equal federal benefits to gay married couples violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.  (Windsor v. United States, S.D.N.Y., No. 10-cv-08435-BSJ -JCF)

The suit was filed by Edith Windsor of New York, who was assessed more than $363,000 in federal estate taxes because the federal government did not recognize her Canadian marriage to Thea Spyer, who died in 2009.  Spyer left all of her property to Windsor, including the apartment they shared.  Spyer's estate normally would have passed to her spouse without any estate tax, but DOMA prevents recognition of same-sex marriages, resulting in the assessment.

In granting summary judgment in favor of Ms. Windsor, the Court held that the surviving spouse of a same-sex marriage should have not been assessed estate taxes by the Internal Revenue Service because the definition of “spouse” in Section Three of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.  

This is the fifth in a string of recent federal court opinions striking down Section Three of DOMA, and the first in its application to federal taxation.