Did you know? We were just informed by our tax lady.
California Senate Bill 1827, the "State Income Tax Equity Act," establishes the requirement that couples registered as California domestic partners file their state income taxes as married couples. It was signed into law on September 29, 2006 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill takes effect on January 1, 2007 and will only apply to tax years 2007 onward (therefore most taxpayers will first file returns under this law in April of 2008).[1]
Registered domestic partners must still, however, file their federal tax returns as single individuals.[2] California income tax returns rely on the federal adjusted gross income (AGI) from federal tax returns, so registered domestic partners must use an alternative method for calculating their AGI.[3] SB 1827 currently requires domestic partners to add their individual federal AGI together to come up with a total to enter into their joint California return.[4] Because this method will result in 5% of domestic partners having a different AGI than they would if they were married, the California Franchise Tax Board had been considering proposals for alternative methods of calculation.[2
http://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/RegDomPrtnr/RegDomPrtnr.shtml
http://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/dompartner.shtml