In 2010 President Obama ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to stop any Medicare and Medicaid participating hospitals from discriminating against gay couples (by denying them visitation rights). That includes almost every hospital in the country, with exceptions being hospitals like the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children which don’t require payment and thus don’t participate in Medicare or Medicaid.
I don`t mean to imply that gays aren’t discriminated against just because Obama fixed one small injustice but I don’t think it’s very well known so I like to point it out.
As a straight man, I can wear these socks with these pants. A gay man would die of embarrassment if he tried it…well he’d have nightmares and PTSD at least.
2 million’s not bad. I was going on my experience in the uk, where the threshold is 250,000, which would get you a 2-bedroom flat in london.I have a feeling that it might well not be as simple as you make out in the US, though.
I mentioned being named in the mortgage because I’m well aware that people are allowed to buy a home together if they’re not married - my example was of someone who had not bought the house with their partner.
No, not if you leave it in a will or fix up the deed now so it is done that way. Sure if you die intestate, your partner may have problems. But I can leave my house to my second-best friends hairdressers cousin if I like.
There are 1,138 rights under federal law (so not including state law) that married heterosexual couples get that homosexual couples can’t because they cannot marry:
But isn’t the tax a lot higher if you leave it to your second-best friend’s hairdresser’s cousin than if you leave it to a spouse or child? I have no idea how it is in the US and I’m sure it varies by state (I’ve seen the part about the 2M -let’s say either the house is worth more or there are local taxes with a lower limit), but in Spain the general recomendation is “if you want someone other than a spouse or relative up to second-degree to have something of yours, make it a gift while alive and not a bequest upon death” - because of the taxes.
Yes, but in general the estate has to be worth $2MM, and you can still put a partner on the deed while you’re both alive.
Only if your estate exceeds $2MM do things get complicated. And if you think you’re going to have a $2mm estate- then you’re a idiot if you don’t spend some time with a dedicated professional who will fix you up with Trusts, etc.
I’m not asking about complicated, I’m asking about expensive.
The process to follow if I inherit my mother’s flat is the same as if I inherit my grandmother’s flat, but the first one carries 3% tax; the second one carries 16%. From a spouse it would be the same process, and zero (the registrar’s fee is the same in all three cases).
As I pointed out earlier, $2 million is the federal exemption. State estate taxes can kick in as early as $400k (Ohio) or $700k (Rhode Island and New Jersey).
US inheritance taxes are not adjusted based on who you inherit things from.
I’m not sure if I’m reading this wrong, or just misunderstanding the concept. There is a marital deduction for the federal estate tax, you can leave any amount to your spouse with no estate tax.
Outside of the marital deduction, there’s no difference, but for a gay person, that difference could be huge. And, it’s a benefit that you can’t duplicate by paying a bunch of money to an estate lawyer.
Unlikely. How many people have Estates in the Multi-millions? I mean we start with $2MM, then what with Trusts and etc (which can make have that estate attorney help a lot), you’re getting into Fantasy-land.
Because there is no “right to marry a woman” that is extended to a man but denied to a lesbian. There is only a right to marriage, which is extended to men and women equally. And the legal definition of marriage is “the union of one man and one woman”. Anyone can enter into a marriage as long as it winds up fitting the definition.
If you want to change the definition, that’s fine, but don’t assume something is there when it isn’t.