1 post tagged “the taxman”
As the April 15th tax filing deadline looms, many gay couples are facing higher tax bills because they do not get the federal tax benefits that accompany marriage. The same is true for heterosexual couples who chose not to get married. Do you think this is fair?
Of course it's fair. Marriage is a child-bearing union of two people who commit to raise up more little taxpayers. Or, from another perspective, it is a sacramental union of two souls before God, geared towards the production of more lives. The government has a vested interest in promoting stable taxpaying individuals, and is well within its rights to offer tax benefits to married people. God has a vested interest in the human race, and for whatever reason has decided we are worth the effort to love.
In the case of gay couples there is no moral or biological ability to be married as both participants are the same sex. This is just a fundamental concept here, but marriage produces children and homosexuals cannot reproduce unless they perform extreme measures to do so. Marriage, true marriage, is closed to them. Imitations can and have been made, but they lack the essential aspects of true marriage.
In the case of unwed couples, there is no real commitment to hold them together should things get tough. Bill wants to continue playing guitar at college parties, Jane wants to settle down. Poof, the relationship is over. Any kids get shuttled between the parents, or not, and grow up completely unaware of the benefits of a traditional family system. This not only damages children, causing increased juvenile delinquency and increasing the likelihood that they never have a successful marriage, but it also damages the two adults. Bitter feelings are the norm, and that is never good. The good news is that if they live together long enough they become common-law spouses. Why is that? Because the state recognizes that marriage is between a man, a woman, and God...perhaps? I don't know the tax benefits of being a common-law spouse, but all you people living together better watch out!
Homosexuals and unwed couples should not be afforded the benefits of marriage, because marriage is more than just a legal status. It's a moral action, a lifelong commitment. It's more than the state can offer us, and people lose sight of that.
From a practical standpoint, if the benefits of marriage were available to basically anybody regardless of their marital status they would simply lower the tax benefits of marriage. Get real, folks.
