Compensation & Benefits Library - Sample Policies

• Joint lease, mortgage, or deed
  
• Joint ownership of vehicle
  
• Joint ownership of a checking account or credit account
  
• Designation of the domestic partner as beneficiary for the employee’s life insurance or retirement benefits
  
• Shared household expenses.
• Registration of a domestic partnership will be required for coverage under the group health, dental, dependent life/ADD, and tuition assistance benefits.

An employee who wishes to register a domestic partnership needs to contact the Human Resources Department for information and the registration form. Upon receipt of a properly completed form, the Department will consider the Partnership registered as of the date on the signature on the form.

Children of domestic partners are eligible for benefits under the same conditions as are the children of employees’ legal spouses.

Enrollment of domestic partners and eligible dependent children is subject to the same rules as enrollment of other dependents.

Domestic partners and their enrolled dependents receive the same or equivalent benefits as spouses and their enrolled dependents receive for group continuation health coverage through COBRA and/or individual conversion.

An employee may terminate a domestic partnership by notifying Human Resources in writing of the termination of the domestic partnership within thirty days of its termination. (The same guideline exists for married couples that divorce.) The employee must then wait six months from the date of the notice before registering another domestic partnership, except in either of the following cases:

• The employee is registering the same domestic partnership within thirty days notification of the termination of that domestic partnership, or
  
• The employee’s former domestic partnership was dissolved through the death of the employee’s domestic partner.
  

The tax consequences of a domestic partnership are the responsibility of the employee, not the company. Under the Internal Revenue Code, an employee is not taxed on the value of benefits provided by an employer to an employee’s spouse or dependent. However, the IRS has ruled that a domestic partner does not qualify as a spouse.

The value of benefits provided to an employee’s domestic partner (and the domestic partner’s eligible children, if any) is considered part of the employee’s taxable income, unless the employee’s domestic partner qualifies as a dependent under Section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code. This company will treat the value of the benefits provided to the employee’s domestic partner (and the domestic partner’s eligible children, if any) as part of the employee’s income and will withhold the taxes on the value of those benefits from employee’s paychecks. If the employee’s domestic partner qualifies as a dependent under Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code, the employee may file the proper documentation with the IRS and seek a refund for taxes withheld.

Some courts have recognized non-marriage relationships as the equivalent of marriage for the purpose of establishing and dividing community property. A declaration of common welfare, such as the registration of a domestic partnership, may therefore have legal implications.

Questions regarding this policy should be directed to the Human Resources Department.