Senate Dems push to update tax code for same-sex marriages

The entire Senate Democratic Caucus on Thursday introduced a bill that would take gender-specific references to marriage out of the tax code.

The legislation follows the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2015 that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, as well as Treasury Department guidance finalized last year that allows same-sex married couples to file joint federal tax returns.

“For two years LGBTQ Americans have been able to enjoy the same marriage rights afforded to all Americans, yet they continue to face unjust discrimination in many aspects of life,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement. “Love is love and it’s high time Congress updated our tax code to reflect that.”

{mosads}The bill is not the first measure relating to taxes and same-sex marriages that Democrats have introduced in recent weeks.

Last month, a group of House and Senate Democrats introduced legislation that would allow same-sex couples that legally married prior to 2013 — when the Supreme Court overturned a key provision in the Defense of Marriage Act that defined marriage as between a man and a woman — to amend old tax returns to file jointly.