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without the involvement of the Commissioner between parents who
both claim the dependency exemption deduction based on providing
support over the applicable thresholds. H. Rept. 98-432 (Part
II), at 1498 (1984).10
Contrary to respondent’s assertions, the legislative history
of section 152(e) does not provide support for deviating from the
plain meaning of the statute that the special support test can
apply to parents who have never married each other. Neither the
House bill nor the conference report state that the amendment to
section 152(e) was intended to apply only to married parents.
Indeed, applying section 152(e)(1)(A)(iii) to both married
parents and parents who have never married each other is
consistent with the stated purpose of resolving dependency
disputes without the Commissioner’s involvement in cases where
parents both claim the dependency exemption deductions.
Therefore, we hold that the special support test in section
152(e)(1) applies in this case. This means that Mrs. King is
treated as having provided over half of Monique’s support for
1998 and 1999 and will be entitled to the dependency exemption
deductions unless, pursuant to section 152(e)(2), she released
her claim to the exemption deductions for Monique for these
years.
10See also Bramante v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2002-228,
citing the legislative history and stating that the pre-1985
version was often subjective and presented difficult problems of
proof and substantiation.
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