18 oppose routine IRS income tax bill, citing same-sex marriage issues

Eighteen members of the Idaho House, including five from North Idaho, voted against a routine income tax bill Thursday over same-sex marriage issues, though the measure must pass before Idahoans can start filing their state tax returns.

“That gives us a legal basis for those returns,” said Idaho State Tax Commission official Mike Chakarun.

An eastern Idaho representative charged that conforming Idaho’s state income tax code to IRS rules, as the state does each year to allow Idaho income tax filers to use their federal adjusted gross income as the starting point for their state tax return calculations, puts the state at odds with a now-invalidated clause in the Idaho Constitution forbidding same-sex marriage. Federal law allows married same-sex couples to file joint returns/ Betsy Russell , SR. More here .