Well this is new for me

[S T]

Have a client that wants to file Single, however, he is married under a Calif Confidential Marriage Certificate.

A Calif Confidential Marriage Certificate is not open to any public record and only the taxpayer can release the same. But from what I have researched the taxpayer is still legally married and therefore would have to file as married joint or married separate, in either case record the spouse's social security #.

Anyone had experience with this?

Sandy

[WhiteOleander]

Have a client that wants to file Single, however, he is married under a Calif Confidential Marriage Certificate.

A Calif Confidential Marriage Certificate is not open to any public record and only the taxpayer can release the same. But from what I have researched the taxpayer is still legally married and therefore would have to file as married joint or married separate, in either case record the spouse's social security #.

Anyone had experience with this?

Sandy

Why would the state have a marriage certificate like that?

I have never had experience with that. But, as far as the IRS is concerned, I think they will definately consider him married. So he gets MFJ or MFS filing status.

I have filed many MFS returns with "unable" in the place for the spouses SS#. I have never had the IRS question one of them.

[JohnH]

Celebrity Marriages

I'm thinking "California" and "entertainment industry". Confidential marriage certificates are probably designed for celebrity marriages and high-profile names. It probably garners more publicity to keep the marriage secret & let the National Enquirer speculate about it.

[S T]

Correct

John H,

You are correct, that one purpose of the Confidential Marriage Certificate , but somehow my client thinks that extends over to his filing status and possibly some other financial or legal obligations since it is not a matter of Public Record. It is a sealed record.

Taxpayer entered into the Confidential Marriage not because of celebrity status, but somehow thinking it would protect him from some of his wife's past issues. One of those issues being some California Tax Issues.

• In California, there are two types of marriage licenses: public and confidential. All marriage records are maintained by the counties, and records for public marriages may be searched.

Although confidential marriages seem tailor-made for privacy-seeking celebrities, they have actually been legal in California since the mid-1800s. The original purpose was to allow couples who had been living together to legitimize their relationship, especially after children came along, without an embarrassing admission to the community that they were not already married.

With a confidential marriage license, no witnesses are required at the ceremony, only the marriage officiant. Confidential marriages are not public record. A copy of the marriage record will only be given to the bride, groom or someone with a court order.

Doesn't seem that is what the Confidential Marriage relates to at all. So I would think I would be correct in advising client filing either married joint or married separate as White Oleander observed.



Sandy

[Koss]

Agree

The federal tax law states that your marital status is determined by the law of the state in which you are a resident. So he's legally married.

The fact that it is not a public record does not mean that he is not considered married under California state law. Whatever law California has that shields the marriage from the public record almost certainly has a clause in it that makes the confidential records available to federal agencies and other state agencies... um, for example, the Social Security Administration... and Medicare... and Homeland Security... and one or two other federal agencies that are so secret they don't even release the name of the agency.

[LOL]

Your client, ST, probably knows that he is legally married under state law, and probably knows that federal law looks to state law to see what his marital status is. He's probably just trying to pull a fast one. His tax return is more confidential that his marriage license. He is required by law to disclose all kinds of sensitive, confidential data on his federal tax return. His marital status is just one element of all that data. He can't conceal his marital status from the IRS any more than he can conceal his income from the IRS.

With that being said...

Your client may be legitimately confused about one aspect of the issue. Some couples manage to "get married" in a church or other ceremony that is held by a bona fide minister of a legitimate religious organization, but they never get a marriage license. This type of marriage is not recognized by state law.

Sometimes it's an elderly couple that doesn't want to foul up social security benefits that flow from a previous deceased spouse. There are other motives as well.

Most "mainstream" religious denominations simply won't do it. But it's becoming a bit more common... The churches that hold "committment ceremonies" for gay couples, I think, may have a hard time refusing to do something similar for a heterosexual couple...

So they go around telling people they are married, holding themselves out as a married couple, but they file separate returns.

Kinda funny, when you think about it. 50 years ago, it was the other way around. People who really wanted to get married, but weren't members of a church, or were members of two different churches, had to get married by a judge, or hunt for a non-demoninational minister who was willing to perform the ceremony, or run off and get married in a "wedding chapel" in Las Vegas. People got married legally, in the eyes of the state, even if their parents' church wouldn't recognize it, or wouldn't perform the ceremony.

Now, we have churches performing the ceremony without recognition by the state...

Burton M. Koss
koss@usakoss.net

[Koss]

Further thoughts...

This is a hoot... Sandy, I think we are typing at the same time.

Your client may draw some comfort from the fact that:

- I don't think California can hold him liable for unpaid tax that his wife owes from a prior year in which they did not file a joint return. Same principle as federal.

- Yeah, they can probably seize his state refund on a joint return, if she owes back taxes, and they may even have a claim to all or part of the federal refund on a joint return.

- But if I remember correctly, California allows a couple to file separate state tax returns even if they file a joint federal return.

Do you practice in California? If not, you've got a lot of homework to do.

Burton

[Koss]

Further comments

Here in central Ohio, where I practice, we have a large community of immigrants from Africa, most notably Somalia.

One particularly thorny issue is that these couples often get married in some sort of "tribal ceremony." Add to that a substantial amount of misinformation and garbled communication about US tax law, and a language barrier.

Many of these folks have been told by someone that "you get more money back if you tell them you are single."

The most complicated part of it all is this:

Some couples were married in a tribal ceremony in their home country, where the offiiciant was a recognized leader in the community or religious group, and this type of marriage is recognized by the government of their home country. Even if no marriage license was ever issued, it is the equivalent of common law marriage in that country, and it is indeed recognized as a valid marriage. You just bootstrap your way in. Ohio recognizes marriages that are valid in any other country that is recognized as a sovereign nation by the US. So these folks are legally married.

But if the tribal ceremony took place here, and was performed by someone who is not an ordained minister...

Well, guess what? Ohio doesn't recognize common law marriage--unless the marriage came into being in a jurisdiction that does recognize it.

Burton M. Koss
koss@usakoss.net

[S T]

Well

Thanks Burton,

I do practice in California, so I am familiar. And Calif is a Community Property State which could further complicate these matters.

All of the scenarios that you posted, I had thought of some, as this taxpayer is a dual resident of California and Mexico.

So I even had thought of the fact that it might have been a Mexican Marriage (confidential there I am not sure), but the taxpayer advises that it is a California Confidential.

Really isn't a huge amount of income to report or tax liability. Taxpayer (husband) is having to report some interest earned on an inheritance that he placed in an account in California. So the account is a separate account outside of the community property issues that we have to deal with.

I haven't checked yet, but I doubt whether the tax liability is higher filing married separate as opposed to Single. I am just trying to file the proper return for both Federal and Calif. Taxpayer is in charge of whatever he needs to report in Mexico.

This whole scenario was just new to me as I have not encountered before, and then the taxpayer advising what his thoughts were and the reasons, raised some other issues and questions. One more example of not relying on information on its face value from the taxpayer without some research and asking more questions.

I know for a fact that California can find out anything, about anyone. I already had an incident regarding whether or not the taxpayer was still legally married or divorced in a particular tax year. So I am sure they have access as well as SSA and IRS to any confidential records as well as public!

Thanks for your post and insight. It is always welcomed! Glad you are back posting for tax season!

Sandy

[JohnH]

How about this approach?

I think I'd tell the client that I respect their right to have a Confidential Marriage and to make whatever disclosures they do or don't wish on their return as long as they are willing to live with the consequences. But Confidentially speaking, I'm not interested in signing anything but a return claiming a legal filing status so I think they need to find another tax preparer who is willing to go along with their scheme and we will just consider this to have been a Confidential Conversation.

[taxxcpa]

Send the client elsewhere

The best thing you could do would be to explain that you cannot prepare his return as filing single since he has told you that he is married.
If he concealed it from you, then you could have prepared it since you would have had no reason to suspect otherwise.

He would probably go elsewhere and make no mention of his marriage. That would be better for both you and him, at least until the IRS discovers that he is married.