The House on Wednesday passed a bill designed to update the tax code so that it provides equal treatment for same-sex married couples.
The bill, known as the PRIDE Act, passed by voice vote.
The bill would remove gender-specific references to marriage in the tax code.{mosads}
It also would allow same-sex married couples who wed prior to when the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013 to amend their filing status on their tax returns in years outside the statute of limitations.
The Internal Revenue Service issued guidance after the court ruling that only allowed couples to change their status to married filing jointly on returns going back to 2010.
“These are common-sense changes that recognize the reality that marriage does not just mean one man and one woman,” Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), an author of the bill, said on the House floor.
She said the change on amending tax-filing status is expected to give back families more than $50 million.
Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) said Republicans have raised some concerns about IRS administration of the bill, but he said that he hoped those issues could be fixed administratively.
Reed said he supports the bill to “make sure our tax code is reflective of the law of the land as it has been declared by the Supreme Court.”