Until Loving vs. Virginia decision of 1967: Loving v. Virginia - Wikipedia it was illegal for blacks and whites to marry in a number of states. Suppose you had legally married a person of a different race in a state where it was legal and then moved to Virginia. Would the IRS have allowed to file jointly?
The relevance of this question to the DOMA decision is clear, since it seems likely that the IRS will not recognize a legal marriage if you are resident in a state that doesn’t recognize them. But I am not interested in speculations on that, only the historical question raised in the title of the thread.
I see this comment:
“In most cases, the IRS does not validate whether you and the person you file jointly with are married. The IRS uses the Social Security Administration records to verify that the names and Social Security numbers match the information you provide on your tax return. If they don’t, the IRS will reject your return if you filed electronically or contact you requesting additional information if you filed a paper return. If one or both of you plan to change your name but haven’t done so by the time you file taxes, you can still file married filing jointly, but you will have to use the name on your Social Security card. Contact the Social Security Administration as soon as possible after your marriage to make the name change. You will have to provide a copy of your marriage license as proof.”
So it looks like the Social Security Administration is the relevant organization in question. And since they only require a copy of the marriage license as proof it looks like the Virginia laws are irrelevant.
The IRS checks names against the SSA database. To my knowledge, they don’t check whether you are married or not unless they conduct an examination of the return (audit in layman’s terms). I had one couple as clients who were married for two years and got divorced without the wife ever updating her name or marital status with the SSA. The IRS never even blinked as the filing status went from single to married and back.