It's not difficult to make any joint purchase or investment. Salespeople are used to seeing all combinations of people buying and investing together. In major urban areas, you may be able to find gay or lesbian investment brokers, car brokers, loan brokers, etc.

If you make a joint purchase or investment, prepare an agreement reflecting your joint ownership or investment percentages. Even if only one of you takes out a loan to finance the purchase or uses separate money to invest or buy, you both may become owners, if that's what you want.

If your purchase or investment comes with an ownership document, such as a car title slip or stock certificate, complete the document thoroughly. The purpose of a title document is to show the type of ownership you have.

Usually, there are three possible ways to jointly own and register property with title certificates. (Be sure to check with the local agencies for details.)

  • "Or," as in "Maria Parker or Jane Axelrod." If one owner dies, ownership and registration may be transferred to the survivor without going through a court probate proceeding. The "or" form, however, normally permits either owner to sell the car without the permission, or even knowledge, of the other. Also, in many states, the "or" form by itself does not clearly determine whether or not the survivor legally receives the deceased's half.
  • "And," as in "Lance Walters and Martin Kwan." If one owner dies, his or her one-half usually passes by a will or living trust, or if he or she didn't prepare anything, to the "next of kin" (children, parents or siblings). For your partner to inherit, you must have a will or living trust so stating. The "and" form usually requires both owners' signatures to sell or give away the property.
  • "Joint tenants," as in "Chris Ramirez and Randy Inko as joint tenants" (or JTWROS or "joint tenants with right of survivorship"). If one person dies, ownership passes automatically to the survivor. In many states, creditors won't let the buyers put title in joint tenancy until the loan for the purchase is completely paid off. Joint tenancy usually requires both signatures to sell or give the entire property away.

Filing Joint Income Tax Returns

Generally, only legally married couples who are married on December 31 of the tax year can file joint income tax returns. Until the day arrives that same-sex couples win the right to legally marry in the U.S., gay and lesbian couples usually can't file joint tax returns.

If one partner supports the other, however, the supporter sometimes can file a tax return as a single person and claim the other as a dependent. This is possible if you meet the five following tests:

Unmarried Person
If the supported person is married and files a joint tax return with his spouse (this will be unusual in your situation), the supporting partner in this relationship may not be able to claim him or her as a dependent. There's one exception: if the married couple did not earn enough to have to file a tax return, and did so only to get a refund, the supporting partner can often claim the dependent.

Citizen or Resident
The supported person usually must be a U.S. citizen, resident alien or citizen of Canada or Mexico.

Income
The supported person's gross income generally cannot exceed $2,300. Nontaxable money, such as gifts, welfare benefits and nontaxable Social Security benefits don't count toward gross income.

Support
The supporting partner usually must provide at least 50% of the other partner's total support for the year. Support includes food, shelter, clothing, medical and dental care and education.

Relationship
A person who lived in your home for the entire year often can be considered a dependent as long as the relationship does not violate local law.