Love, Marriage and Taxes

Today's Boston Globe reports on the plight of same-sex Massachusetts couples and their attempt to file their taxes properly. The problem is that they are married for the purpose of state law, but single under federal law...but, as you will remember if you haven't yet done yours, your computation of state tax starts with reporting your federal tax information. So these couples need to do a "phantom" return as a federal married couple as well as their own individual taxes. The really interesting question, though, is that the system forces same-sex couples to, in a sense, perjure themselves on their federal tax return...after all, they have to sign a document saying that, to the best of their knowledge, they are single...