DOMA: How Tax Compliance Post Windsor Has Created a Fiscal Time Bomb for Jurisdictions that Deny Same-Sex Marriages

Abstract

During the Summer of 2013, the United States Supreme Court (“the Court”) decided two landmark cases that will have major ramifications on both civil and business matters within the United States for decades. In both cases, United States v. Windsor (“Windsor”) as well as Hollingsworth v. Perry (“Hollingsworth”), the Court was asked to review and question the validity of same-sex marriages at the federal (Windsor) and state (Hollingsworth) level. This article analyzes one aspect of the financial ramifications for jurisdictions that fail to recognize and address same-sex marriage. This potential “fiscal time bomb” will ignite April 15, 2014.

Keywords: DOMA, Same-sex marriage, Supreme Court, Windsor, Tax Compliance, Fiscal, State Government, Federal Government, Constitutional Right, Defense of Marriage Act, Equal Protection Clause, Fourteenth Amendment, Full Faith & Credit Clause

JEL Classification: H2, K2