Tax Court Rejects Gay Man’s Attempt to File Joint Married Return

The U.S. Tax Court has ruled that a gay activist is not entitled to file a married joint return with his partner.

The court said in its opinion (PDF) that petitioner Charles Merrill, an artist and millionaire, is not entitled to married filing joint status because he never filed a tax return for the tax years in question, 2004 and 2005. The court did not reach Merrill’s constitutional arguments.

One claim, outlined by TaxProf Blog, was that the Defense of Marriage Act had barred Merrill from getting the same benefits as other married couples, violating the First Amendment’s establishment clause. He also had alleged a constitutional violation in discriminatory sections of the Internal Revenue Code.

Merrill’s cousin is the founder of Merrill Lynch, according to the opinion. For 23 years he was married to Evangeline Johnson Merrill, an heiress to Johnson & Johnson Co., but he became involved in a relationship with Kevin Boyle shortly after her death. During the tax years in question, Merrill and Boyle had not yet gotten married, although they had participated in a commitment ceremony. They married in 2008 and have been together 18 years.

Merrill did not file tax returns for either 2004 or 2005, despite owing more than $835,000 in taxes, according to the Internal Revenue Service. He later told the IRS that he didn’t pay taxes as an act of civil disobedience advocating same-sex marriage equality. The court disagreed. “DOMA has no bearing on petitioner's filing status, and its constitutionality is irrelevant to our holding,” the opinion said in a footnote.