Since we're talking about same-sex marriage and the tax system, I wonder if I could share the treatment I wrote for a one-act play I've been working on. It's a long post, and may be a little involved - but I'm trying (among other things) to figure out whether legal developments in same-sex marriage in recent months have made the story outdated, such that it should at least be set a few years in the past rather than in whatever the present is at the time.
The tentative title (it's a comedy, I hope!) is SETH AND TAXES
[Possible tagline: To Nathan, the only sure things in life are...SETH AND TAXES]
"Seth and Nathan are a happy couple, together since the mid-1990’s, now about 40-45 years old. Nathan made a good deal of money as an investment banker in the late 1990’s, and used the money to fulfill a dream – he and Seth used his money to make a few independent films, which like most indies, lost their money, and caused Nathan to have a loss on his taxes of close to $2-million over the years.
Finally giving up, Nathan went back to work as a banker, and his accountant pointed out that there was no need to pay taxes for many years since the net operating loss could be carried forward. But the accountant says in passing how sad it is that they’re not a married husband and wife, because then the money Seth makes at his movie-studio-assistant job could also escape taxes.
Indignant at the unfairness of the system, and wanting to keep Seth’s earning without paying taxes, they hatch a plan. When Seth finds an opportunity to move on to work for a new studio, he applies for the job under Nathan’s name and gets the job, living his work life under Nathan’s name and resume, and getting all checks and tax forms paid to Nathan. Then they file their return using Nathan’s net operating loss, paying no income taxes and even getting back the social security taxes, getting a huge refund.
As luck would have it, they are audited, and the IRS auditor asks what seems to be an innocent question of Nathan about what it’s like to work with such-and-such star, who is the auditor’s favorite movie actress. Nathan of course has no idea. The auditor then uses a flimsy excuse to show up at the movie-studio job, supposedly to deliver the zero-tax-due audit report (but really the auditor wants to meet the star). The auditor asks for Nathan, and is of course pointed to the person that everyone thinks is Nathan, actually Seth. The auditor realizes a scam is being pulled, that Seth is doing the work but claiming he is Nathan to everybody there, and for tax reasons.
The auditor brings them to court, to civilly get back taxes paid – they lose, but it’s not lots of money, so Nathan has no problem paying it. The auditor wants it to end there, but the auditor’s somewhat homophobic supervisor decides that his office must press criminal charges against them to show them they can’t circumvent the IRS’s law.
They hire a maverick attorney, who makes the case that since they love each other and live just like a married couple for all the years, there could not have been the intent to defraud the government. There was no fraud, their love has been as real as any male-female couple, and the only fraud is the government’s refusal to accept their relationship and give them the benefits of marriage.
We follow the trial through jury selection and a few expert witnesses. The sides rest their cases, the jury in the criminal trial comes as a hung jury, the judge sends them back, they come back with a decision that their union was not a fraud in any sense of the word so how can we find them guilty of fraud."
