The federal government considers me head of household (HOH). They came to this conclusion because I have a dependent for whom I provided more than half of the financial support. As a result, Uncle Sam will be giving me a nice little chunk of change. Cheers!
In California, we are registered domestic partners, but this is in conflict with my HOH federal filing status. In order for my state filing status to match my federal, I have to either A) change federal status to married (which I can't, so thanks for nothing on that front, US government!) or B) lie on my state return and say that we didn't live together for more than half the year (which totally plays into the religious right's hand about how we are flaky and our relationships don't last). H&R Block gives me a great way to circumvent this. (That's sarcasm, in case it didn't translate.)For me to be able to file electronically - without lying - I have to:
- create a federal return as HOH
- file said return electronically
- go back and create a SECOND federal return, this time as married, filing separately - we won't even get into the fact that doing so doubles the amount of time this will take
- do not file this return, but use it for state
- create a state return as married, filing separately
- mail in state return, lest an electronic submission show a conflict
- delete second federal return
It makes me want to smack those sanctity of marriage morons more than I regularly want to.
If you find yourself in the same boat, here are a couple resources we found to be helpful: H&R Block's advice and an article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
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