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We're married not dp'd - vent
For the last several months K's paycheck has had an additional income line. We've done every possible math equation to figure out what the line meant but none of it added up. Yesterday she finally got a chance to speak with payroll and it turns out they are 'giving' her income for the portion of my insurance that they pay. Hang in here with me while I break it down..
We pay $240 a month for my health insurance through K's paycheck.
Her company pays $360 a month towards my insurance.
The company (in this case the State) is counting that $360 as 'income' that K earns and taxing her on it!
Why are they doing this? Because they say we're domestic partners! No we're not, we're married you a-holes! We gave you a marriage license, not a dp. We don't believe in dps and have never had one.
So now her income will show up as about $5K more a year which is going to screw up her tax return. And she can't claim it as my medical expense since the federal government doesn't recognize us.
Needless to say K is calling the comptrollers office directly today. If it doesn't get fixed we'll be calling GLADD next. NY state recognizes our marriage. K works for the state. We gave them our marriage license. We should not be treated like dps.
Vent over. Thanks for listening.
Re: We're married not dp'd - vent
isn't is rediculous what we have to go through??
my company was doing a similar thing until recently - i'm hoping yours is resolved quickly!
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yeah, you would think the state would recognize it. the federal government doesn't, though, regardless of what the state does, so i'm pretty sure you're sol on that front. the irs doesn't even consider you domestic partners. we went through that when we were trying to decide if we should put me on c's insurance plan. it would have increased her federal taxes by around $2000 a year--not her earnings, but her taxes owed.
I realize at the federal level we don't get sh!t. But K asked if straight married employees were given the extra income charge and told no. So then it stands to reason that if the state really does want to treat our license as equal that K shouldn't be given 'credit' for the portion of my insurance that the state pays. She'll still get taxed on my insurance but she shouldn't get a penalty of showing more income than she makes.
The only reason we're keeping me on her insurance is because they pay for IVF. So should we get that far it's 100% covered. Perhaps if this mess continues I can talk K into TTC a bit early so that we can get me off of her insurance as quickly as possible ;-)
i agree, but to the irs she does have more income then she actually makes. unfortunately that's how they see it. i'm not sure how new york deals with it on the state level, but it is accurate at the federal level--and this is yet another reason why i think the whole "leave it to the states" argument is complete and total crap. when the state treats it one way and the feds treat it another it makes an already complicated system uncomprehensible. i would hope that the state would give her a deduction of that amount from her earnings if it is included at that level, but i don't know how they do it.
when are you planning on ttc? can you drop her insurance for now and then get back on during open enrollment when you're ready? that is assuming you have basic coverage through your new job. also, are you planning on starting with ivf right away? that's usually something they do later since it's invasive and pricier, so you wouldn't even necessarily need that coverage when you start ttc--although i don't know the specifics of your plan. just throwing some thoughts out there...
Blue -- you're absolutely right. It's a mess and we'll probably have more headaches than solutions but we'll fight it anyway because if we never fight we can't ever win.
TTC may start in April/May. I could take insurance from my employer but getting back on K's isn't as easy. I think her next open enrollment is June-ish. We aren't going to start with IVF but the best option on my insurance is 6 cycles of IUI with one IUI each cycle. K's covers anything so if we want to do 3 IUIs a cycle we can. Also, her drug coverage is 100% whereas mine is only 80%(?). Also, my work does spousal reimbursement so each quarter they will reimburse me for BOTH my and K's insurance. Which means that except for this added 'income' the state is charging us, we'll get our insurance free. 100% free. TTC + Free =
Let me know what happens here.
Its my understanding this is a result of the federal DOMA (from my payroll office). The Univ lists the portion of C's insurance they pay and I pay taxes on it, b/c I can't cover her as my dependent under federal law.
We know that's probably the case. And honestly, I wouldn't have been upset if the HR person had just said our marriage isn't recognized at the federal level. Instead she kept insisting that she had to treat us as domestic partners. And we're not. It's just language but it got under my skin and bugged me.
The whole thing is such a nightmare. We will be faced with a similar situation soon.
Plus, I don't even know if I am married anymore. I was on the phone handling some financial things and was asked if we are married. I started laughing and said I didn't know. How stupid is that? It took another 20 minutes to determine that, for the purpose of that call, I was married. UGH!
So sorry you have to jump through hoops :-(
Just another pain in the @ss that comes from our marriages not being recognized!!!
I would be interested to know if a repeal of DOMA would fix this - because Barack did promise.....
sahm ~ toddler breastfeeder ~ cloth diaperer ~ baby wearer