Disadvantages of Domestic Partner Benefits
- Domestic partnership status does not confer the same benefits as marriage.wedding ring image by Andrzej Wlodarczyk from Fotolia.com
A study conducted by the Williams Institute and Center for American Progress in 2007 concluded that employees with partner benefits pay on average $1,069 more per year in taxes than their married coworkers. Meanwhile, an employer's financial contribution toward non-dependent same-sex partners--reported as taxable wages--means an additional $57 million per year in payroll taxes, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Financial disadvantages count among several issues that couples who claim domestic partner benefits instead of a traditional marriage must face. - Traditional inheritance laws provide widows and widowers with a portion of the deceased's estate if their spouse died without drafting a will. However, common law does not grant the same rights to a surviving domestic partner as a widow or widower from a legal marriage. As of 2010, certain states, such as California, Vermont and Hawaii, have passed statutes that allow for inheritance rights between domestic partners, but such rules don't exist in all 50 states. Each person in a domestic partnership may draft a will or trust to provide for a surviving partner in order to avoid this, but otherwise, in a case of sudden or accidental death, a domestic partner cannot receive a portion of the other partner's estate, reports Justia.com.
- Domestic partners do not have the same hospital visitation rights as legally wed couples, and doctors may bar visitation between partners during a time of medical crisis, in which one partner may have crucial medical information to provide health professionals. On April 23, 2010, President Barack Obama pledged to extend hospital visitation and medical decision-making rights to same-sex partners; however, the Department of Health and Human Services must implement the pledge. Even then, the rule would only apply to hospitals funded by Medicare or Medicaid, writes Steven Tanner on the Chicago Family Law Blog.
- Parents currently in a same-sex domestic partnership who have a child from a previous marriage may face difficulty in maintaining custody of their child. Also, in states that do not allow gay and lesbian adoption, the law does not consider the second parent to be a legal parent, meaning he won't retain the same custody rights as both parents in a legally recognized marriage, according to Laura Fishman on the Houston Family Law Blog.
- Not all health insurance options provide coverage for a domestic partner, as opposed to a spouse. Also, pre-tax dollars, such as Flexible Spending Accounts or Health Savings Accounts, can't be spent on a domestic partner, points out HRC.org.
- Couples within an opposite-sex marriage can receive citizenship rights, but a couple registered in a domestic partnership cannot. In 1996, the federal government passed the Defense of Marriage Act, which, according to ImmigrationEquality.org, prohibits citizenship to any bi-national couples registered as domestic partners or as part of a same-sex marriage on a federal level.
