Equal Dignity for Married Taxpayers Act
Equal Dignity for Married Taxpayers Act would overhaul the Internal Revenue Code’s language to ensure that all tax provisions apply to legally married same-sex couples in the same way they apply to other married couples. The bill accomplishes this primarily by replacing gendered terms (e.g., husband and wife) with neutral terms (e.g., married couple, spouse, individual) across a broad swath of the tax code. It also makes several provisions expressly treat a married couple as a single unit for certain tax purposes and updates the treatment of gifts, estate, and other cross-referenced rules to reflect that a marriage is between two individuals regardless of gender. While the changes are largely linguistic and structural, they aim to prevent any discrimination in tax treatment based on the gender of spouses and to align the code with the reality of legally married same-sex couples. The bill includes extensive amendments to reduce gender-specific language in numerous code sections, adds explicit “treat as 1 partner / 1 person” rules for certain provisions, updates joint filing and gift/estate provisions, and addresses community property language in specific contexts. It was introduced in the House on June 26, 2025, referred to the Ways and Means Committee. If enacted, it would require widespread administrative updates but would not, on its face, create new tax policy beyond language and structural reforms to ensure equal application of existing rules.
Key Points
- 1Broad modernization of tax code language to be gender-neutral, replacing terms like “husband and wife,” “his spouse,” and related phrases with neutral terms such as “married couple,” “the individual’s spouse,” or “the taxpayer’s spouse” in many provisions (Section 2(a) and Section 3).
- 2Explicit treatment of married couples as 1 partner/1 person in specific tax contexts, such as the 42(j)(5)(C) rule for treating a married couple as 1 partner for certain calculations and a general statement in 7872(f) that a married couple shall be treated as 1 person (Section 2(a)(4) and Section 2(a)(31)).
- 3Joint returns and related terminology updated: Replacing “joint returns of income tax by husband and wife” with “joint returns of income tax by a married couple” and aligning dependent and survivor language accordingly (Section 2(a)(23) and Section 2(b)(1)).
- 4Gifts and spousal transfers adjusted for neutrality: Redefining “gift by husband or wife” to “gift by one spouse to third party” and introducing a new paragraph clarifying how gifts are split when spouses are married (Section 2(a)(20)) and related reforms to the treatment of spouses in gift law (Section 2(a)(21)).
- 5Community property and related income rules updated to reflect married couples as a unit; for example, a specific change to how community income can be treated for foreign earned income exclusions (Section 2(a)(14)).
- 6Section 3 focuses on ensuring that “his spouse” and related phrasing are removed in favor of “the individual’s spouse” and similar neutral language across a wide set of provisions, with corresponding conforming amendments to maintain consistency throughout the Code (Section 3).