- 11 -
support may not, therefore, be left to "determination by
inference or conjecture." Id. at 306.8 Accordingly, no part of
a payment may be excluded from a recipient spouse’s income under
section 71(c)(1) unless the operative divorce instrument
expressly specifies or "fixes" a sum certain or percentage of the
payment for child support. Consequently, in the case of
unallocated or undifferentiated support for a wife and children,
none of the amount is treated as child support under section
71(c)(1).
In applying the principle of Commissioner v. Lester, supra,
this Court has repeatedly refused to allow inference, intent, or
other nonspecific designations of payments as child support to
override the clear intent of section 71(c)(1). See, e.g., Mass
v. Commissioner, 81 T.C. 112, 123 (1983); Blakey v. Commissioner,
78 T.C. 963 (1982); Giordano v. Commissioner, 63 T.C. 462 (1975);
Grummer v. Commissioner, 46 T.C. 674 (1966).
Finally, an amount otherwise not “fixed” under section
71(c)(1) and Lester will be considered child support if the
spousal support provisions of the divorce instrument reduces
payments dependent on a contingency related to a child. More
8 See, however, discussion concerning sec. 71(c)(2) in the
portion of this opinion concerning petitioner’s alternative
argument, infra.
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