Mass. city to pay wedded gay workers to offset tax
Taxes Monday, July 11th, 2011
By: Johanna Kaiser, Boston.com
When the city of Cambridge issues paychecks to its public employees, nearly two dozen workers find a federal tax on their income that their colleagues don’t have to pay.
Like many people, these 22 school and city workers chose to put their spouses on their employer-provided health insurance. Because they’re in a homosexual relationship, the value of that health coverage is considered taxable income by the federal government.
But starting this month, Cambridge will become what is believed to be the first municipality in the country to pay its public employees a stipend in an attempt to defray the cost of the federal tax on health benefits for their same-sex spouses.
The city employees hit by the extra tax pay an additional $1,500 to $3,000 in taxes a year and officials estimate the stipends would cost the city an additional $33,000.
“This is about equality,’’ said Marjorie Decker, a Cambridge city councilor. “This is a city that models what equality really means.’’
Of the thousands of legally married gay and lesbian couples in Massachusetts, none can receive the federal benefits offered to heterosexual married couples because the federal government doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages.
To read more, visit: http://articles.boston.com/2011-07-10/news/29758590_1_lesbian-couples-kris-mineau-federal-tax
Short URL: https://reteaparty.com/?p=2575
First, taxation on income (productivity) is equal to slavery. Funds payed out from that taxation is ill gotten gain.
That being said, it is unconstitutional to tax individuals disproportionately.
And finally, if a city, county, or state, or a company, business, or private employer decides to give benefits to someone because they are gay-married, hetero-married, single, couple, threeple, polygamist, whatever, that;s up to those entities offering the benefits.
Don’t like it? Vote to change it, boycot the business, or quit the job.