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Registered Domestic Partners Entitles To The Same Property Tax Break As Married Couples

Thu, 2007-10-11 16:00 — Michele

In 2005 this law was expanded to cover property transfers between Registered Domestic Partners.

Cash strapped property assessors from several counties joined together in a lawsuit requesting the court to find the law unconstitutional. On October 2, 2007 the Court of Appeal in Sacramento County held that the California State Legislature had the authority to extend this right to Registered Domestic Partners.

This ruling is completely untenable, said Mike Strong, the Sutter County Assessor, who is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. It appears that the case may be appealed to the California Supreme Court.

Gay and lesbian couples account for most of California’s 45,000 domestic partner couples. The ruling is “a recognition that domestic partners, like heterosexual married couples, should be treated equally and with dignity and respect,” said attorney Daniel Powell, who represented several same-sex couples and the advocacy group Equality California. A contrary ruling, he said, would have forced some domestic partners “to pay much higher taxes upon the death of a loved one.”

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