Poland: Finance minister's interpretation may suffice for same-sex couples' joint tax filing

Poland's government equality plenipotentiary, Katarzyna Kotula, plans to lobby the finance minister to allow same-sex couples to file joint tax returns through a ministerial interpretation. This initiative comes after President Andrzej Duda vetoed a bill that would have regulated cohabitation and the status of next of kin in relationships.

Duda cited constitutional concerns, arguing that the bill could undermine the status of marriage as a union between a man and a woman. However, Kotula pointed out that recent regulations already permit the transcription of same-sex marriages performed abroad, enabling access to social security benefits and even health insurance coverage for partners.

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I will convince him of this, and that is what I will focus on in the coming weeks.

The remaining hurdle, according to Kotula, is the joint tax filing for approximately two thousand couples. She believes this can be resolved with a simple interpretation from the finance minister, rather than requiring new legislation or regulations. Kotula expressed confidence that the president's veto, while blocking the cohabitation bill, will inadvertently speed up the process of achieving marriage equality in Poland.

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The president's veto paradoxically accelerates the introduction of marriage equality.