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respondent indicates that Mr. Sherbo released his claim to
dependency exemptions for both Sean and Liane for tax year 1995
and future years. Petitioner's entitlement to section 32 earned
income credit for 1995 and 1996, however, is not conditioned on
petitioner's entitlement to dependency exemption deductions under
section 151. The statutory language that previously linked those
issues was removed by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of
1990, Pub. L. 101-508, sec. 11111, 104 Stat. 1388, 1388-408,
effective for taxable years beginning after December 31, 1990.
The wage withholding records supplied by petitioner in
response to respondent's request for information provide evidence
of the court-ordered child support payments Mr. Sherbo made to
petitioner and suggest that petitioner was the custodial parent.
These records do not establish, however, that Mr. Sherbo did not
share a residence with petitioner during the years in issue.
Respondent's refusal to rely on petitioner's claims
regarding Mr. Sherbo's residence was not unreasonable.
Petitioner's claims were in direct conflict with petitioner's
earlier reply to respondent and with the information provided by
Mr. Sherbo on his tax returns for the years in issue. Under
these facts and circumstances, it was reasonable to conclude that
petitioner and Mr. Sherbo may have shared the same residence for
the 1995 and 1996 tax years. The legal consequence of these
facts under section 32(c) was that respondent was unable to
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