If you used to think same sex marriage as a real challenge, wait until you know about the divorce for same sex couples. Ending a marriage is anyway difficult for any kind of couples, but when it comes to dealing with same sex divorce conundrum, it is far more complicated than you can even imagine. In most cases, dame sex couples face huge difficulty in getting married or divorce if they do not move to a place where same sex marriage or divorce is legal.
While you are dealing with divorce for same sex couples, they need to be married for quite some time and residing in an established residency for minimum six months to one year is mandatory in most of the places. The greatest challenge for same sex couples is to find out and travel to a place where they can marry. Then again, they need to relocate to the similar place which recognizes same sex marriage and divorce and establish a residency for at least six months to a year once they decide to end their marriage. However, for several people moving to another place as well as establishing another residency over there just to get a divorce just not seems practical or feasible.
Steps to Follow to Overcome the Challenges
When a heterosexual relationship ends in a divorce, a judge may order a pension, alimony, retirement account or even conjugal properties to be divided without triggering taxes or penalties. For divorcing same sex couples, any kind of court ordered division is not protected which in return trigger taxes and penalties. In heterosexual divorce, during the exchange of real property, no capital gains taxes are required, whereas same sex couples owe the taxes if due to the unprotected nature of divorce for same sex couples. In fact, the transaction of cashes in terms of the divorce settlement is also chargeable for same sex couples. However, homosexual couples get alimony without any deduction of tax and the receiver will get the amount without providing the details of their income taxes, unlike heterosexual couples and rarely some gift taxes are applicable after it exceeds a certain amount.
For the past few years, it has been difficult for people to keep up with the advancement of same sex relationship in terms of legal awareness. The legal field has quickly transformed the image of same sex marriage or divorce over the years. Whenever same sex couples want to end their marriage, they tend to select a number of options available in their locality. Even if the most common and suitable initial step is to file a divorce against your spouse, some couples prefer to opt for collaborative divorce or mediation for avoiding much harassment. Certain steps like petition of custody issues, division of property, custody rights and support is quite similar as of heterosexual couples. In fact, some places over the world have enacted laws for eliminating any difference between the divorce of heterosexual and homosexual couples. Those special laws ensure that any kind of divorce should be treated the same by legal authority.
In spite of, these favourable laws for same sex couples, plenty of roadblocks are still there to make same sex marriage and divorce challenging and troublesome, especially in those places where same sex relationships are not allowed legally. The obstructions which make the divorce for same sex couples harder are establishing residency for a prolonged time in different locality if your place do not approve homosexual relationship, paying unreasonable taxes, social security benefits might not be accepted, the chances of multiple marriages might occur due to attending different jurisdiction. The only way to keep your confusions away is to seek the help of legal counsel to move on in the most convenient way possible.
Same sex marriage or divorce is not a common topic to deal with and the author has specialized on the subject with years of research. Try to give professional consultation for marriage as well as divorce for same sex couples in Seattle from Eagle Law Offices.