Man Adopts His Partner to Avoid Inheritance Taxes
This odd tale began nearly 45 years ago when John met Gregory at a gay bar in downtown Pittsburgh. Forty five years later the loving couple has been through losing friends to Aids, the gay rights movement and Pennsylvania constitutional laws that prevented them from becoming a married couple.
Now at 65 and 73 they face financial and emotional in-securities. Fearful of financial strains due to Pennsylvania’s inheritance taxes John adopted Gregory. Now instead of being a couple they are father and son.
Gregory is the older of the two, but because John’s father is still alive he could not legally adopt him.
In states such as Pennsylvania, same-sex couples still struggle with health-care decision-making and filing statuses on their state taxes.
John and Gregory had considered marrying in another state. But they found out that because Pennsylvania does not recognize their marriage they would still be subjected to the inheritance laws.
After their lawyer filled out the proper paperwork Gregory and John had a 15-minute hearing at the courthouse.
They had to answer several questions including, “How long had they known each other? How long had they lived together? How long had they been in their current place?”
Before making a final decision the judge asked, “I am really curious, why are you adopting [Gregory]?”
‘Because it’s our only legal option to protect ourselves from Pennsylvania’s inheritance taxes,'” John explained. “He got it immediately.”
The judge signed the adoption papers on the spot. He handed the papers to the clerk then turned to John and said, “Congratulations, it’s a boy.”
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Vehicle Owners Request for Reduction on Gas Taxes
Because of the increasing rates on gas taxes, vehicle owners have requested for reductions on the gas taxes in order for them to save extra money from purchasing gallons of gasoline to fuel up their vehicles.
The issues of vehicle owners about gas taxes are not a new issue. Ever since the tax gas started to increase, taxpayer advocates and other people who are affected by the sudden boost of tax gas, were already aware and disturbed about the increasing gas taxes. The government and some professionals that deal with such issues on tax have already taken some actions to prevent or reduce gas tax. However, the actions and solutions made are not enough to stop the increasing taxes on gas. That is why many people are requesting for transparency about how taxes are calculated when it comes to gas.
The reduction and transparency on gas tax is still in the process. Although the government can’t just lower or reduce the tax on gas instantly, legislators and staffs of the committee that handle the issue are finding some ways on how people can save money from buying gas. These temporary solutions are not yet implemented, but there were numbers of people who are suggesting purchasing hybrid cars and other fuel-efficient tools or machines to avoid paying a huge amount of money when buying gasoline on different gas stations. There are also some who recommended using public transportation rather than using their own vehicles when travelling from one place to another.
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All Political Groups Urged to Pay Taxes
Paying taxes may be beneficial for the government and other organizations that benefit from taxes, but for people who pay taxes, it is a burden and a pain in their pockets. No person who owned a radio or television could escape from paying taxes. But, why there are some political groups that don’t pay for taxes?
According to news recently, there is a number of political organization or group that doesn’t pay their taxes because of some reasons. Taxpayer advocates have urged those political groups to pay taxes properly and immediately because they are not the only one who is suffering from paying taxes. In the society, there are always different classes of societies that most of you are aware of. Some were born rich while others grew up from poverty. But, this does not mean that rich people and politicians will be exempted from paying taxes because it is their responsibility as a tax payer.
Lawmakers have taken actions about this issue and they said that monitoring irresponsible taxpayers may take time, but you can guarantee that they will do their job successfully. There were even bills passed and sponsored just to solve the problem. In addition to that, the process of paying tax was improved in order for legislators to track down those political groups that escaped in paying taxes.
Based from the recent progress report about implementing solutions to such issues, the numbers of taxpayers have increased. This just means that taxpayers or some political groups are now paying their taxes responsibly.
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