Same-sex Marriage and Inheritance Tax in Maryland

Friday, June 29th, 2012

According to the Orphans’ Court for Baltimore City, the Register of Wills in all jurisdictions have been instructed to handle same-sex marriages as they would valid common law marriages, including exemption from inheritance taxes!

This means that if a same-sex couple who was married in another state now resides in Maryland, and one of the spouses passes away, inheritance tax would not be imposed on any property passing to the surviving spouse.

Unfortunately, this does not effect the imposition of estate tax on same-sex spouses at the state or federal level.

Stay tuned for more updates as the State applies the Court of Appeals’ decision in Port v Cowan.

For more information on how this change could affect your estate plan, please contact Frankel Sims Law at (410) 828-7775.