Annie Leibovitz and the gay tax

[tpsbmam]

The real reason the photographer found herself in such dire financial straits.
Nancy Goldstein

Mar. 05, 2009 |

(snips)

Poets swoon about it and singers croon about it, but LGBT people can calculate the cost of love down to the last penny. In my household it comes to around $329.25 monthly: that's the gay tax my wife and I shell out for me to be on her health insurance plan, because her company must treat that benefit as additional taxable income. It doesn't matter that our Massachusetts marriage is recognized in New York. Companies pay for their employees' health insurance with pre-tax money through a federal program, and same-sex marriage isn't federally recognized.

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But what the NYT missed, along with every other straight newspaper that picked up the story, is why Leibovitz suddenly found herself in such dire financial straits. It took AfterEllen's Julie Miranda to put two and two together and figure out that "most of Leibovitz' financial woes stemmed from her inheritance of her longtime partner, Susan Sontag's estate." Writes Miranda (who, in turn, is channeling Suze Orman's Valentine's Wish for Gay Marriage):

"Same-sex couples do not have the same privileges as straight married couples when it comes to inheritance. If your partner passes away and leaves her estate to you, you have to pay up to 50 percent of the value of your inheritance in taxes. However, if you and your partner were recognized as a married couple, you wouldn't have to pay a dime...When Sontag died in 2004, she bequeathed several properties to Leibovitz, who was forced to pony up half of their value to keep them."

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/03/05/leibovitz/print.html


O...M....G!!!

[taterguy]

1. It's God's will

:sarcasm:, in case you couldn't tell

[ogneopasno]

2. Gosh, if only she had married a man, she wouldn't have had this problem!

[KittyWampus]

5. She may very well have. A huge part of her problem involves remodeling an historic townhouse in NYC

and buying the next door building when the work she was doing on house #1 caused damage plus various lawsuits.

[ogneopasno]

7. Also true.

[KittyWampus]

3. she's a horrible poster child for this important issue. She made a LOT of crappy decisions

that predate and/or have nothing to do with her partner's demise.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. Starting with a lack of good estate planning

The tax laws are intricate and arcane. They are in dire need of a serious overhaul in many many ways. However, prior to her partners demise, they could have done a number of things to minimize the tax bite.

[tpsbmam]

8. Yeah, but they shouldn't have had to deal with the issue at all....

Heterosexual couples make crappy decisions all the time but it doesn't cost them the way that this has cost her. She has lots of resources and could have gotten better advice, but why should anyone have to do that? The issue, for me, remains and, crappy decisions or not, she should not be going through this and wouldn't be if she had equal rights.

[KittyWampus]

9. Once again, that isn't necessarily true. She has lawsuits and screwed-up building projects

that have nothing to do with Sontag's demise.

And even straight couples recognized by the Govt need estate planning.

I wonder if Sontag shared custody with the three kids.

Usually when you have kids, estate planning becomes a priority.

[goclark]

4. That is a shame ~ and that policy must end!