There will be some major changes in tax planning for Registered Domestic Partners (RDP’s) in California this year.

A recent Chief Counsel Advisory (CCA 2010210) issued by the Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service, recognizes California as a community property state, and now accepts its treatment of earned income as community property for Registered Domestic Partners. As with opposite sex married couples, RDPs have an automatic right to one-half of each other’s earned income.

These are exciting times for those of us in the LGBT community. More and more of the legal inequities we suffer are being corrected. Some of the hurdles we’ve had to jump in order to share meaningful lives with our partners
are being removed.

We still have a long way to go to reach true equality, but the past year or two have seen progress on several fronts.

In some of my past articles, we talked about how estate planning is important for everyone - from people of the most modest means to those with great wealth. Whatever your assets, you can control them now, in life, and later, after death, with careful planning. You can assure that your partner, spouse or family (even pets!) are protected to the best of your ability when you use the right estate planning tools.

Trusts are the backbone of most estate plans, so let’s review some of the most common types of trusts, and see how they work:

2010 is bringing more LGBT equality action at the state and federal levels than ever before. There is energy and resolve in the drive for equal rights that won’t be stopped by the anti-gay rhetoric and half-truths of conservative and fundamentalist organizations. Here is an update on some of the new legislation, resolutions and actions that give us hope for the future. We will continue this list, with a more detailed discussion, in our next article.

Federal Actions