For detailed records of American life, the Census Bureau usually employs surveys of a small but statistically representative sample of Americans. This resulted, according to some estimates, in as much as a 25 percent overcount of gay couples. So gay couples who crossed state borders to marry, but lived in states that did not recognize gay marriage, were not allowed to file jointly on their state tax returns. This changed after Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision that recognized gay marriage in all states. Maybe the best way to think about these Treasury numbers is as a floor, lower than the hypothetically perfect count of gay marriage but the closest we’ve ever come to one.

Source: New York Times September 12, 2016 11:01 UTC