U.S: Lesbian couple were denied service at H&R Block

A same-sex couple in Merced says they filed a state complaint against a local H&R Block claiming employees discriminated against them and denied them tax services.

Sylvia Valdez said she visited the H&R Block location on 12 W. Main St. in Merced on March 31 to get help filing her and her wife Lynn Werner-Valdez’s taxes as a married couple, filing jointly. The couple was legally married in Washington state in 2013, according to their marriage certificate. And Sylvia provided the last two years of tax returns filed as a married couple to aid H&R Block.

But when a tax preparer noticed Sylvia’s spouse’s name was female, the employee told Sylvia the taxes could get “complicated,” Sylvia said. And after a call to a manager, Sylvia said the employee claimed the couple classified as a domestic partnership and couldn’t file their taxes as a married couple.

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