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uniform Federal standard as to what constitutes alimony. See
sec. 422(a) of the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 (DRA 1984), Pub.
L. 98-369, 98 Stat. 795. See also H. Rept. 98-432, Part 2, 1495,
1496 (1984), wherein the House Ways and Means Committee
articulated the purpose of the 1984 amendment as follows:
The Committee bill attempts to define alimony in a way
that would conform to general notions of what type of
payments constitute alimony as distinguished from
property settlements and to prevent the deduction of
large, one-time lump-sum property settlements.
* * * * * * *
In order to prevent the deduction of amounts which
are in effect transfers of property unrelated to the
support needs of the recipient, the bill provides that
a payment qualifies as alimony only if the payor * * *
has no liability to make any such payment for any
period following the death of the payee spouse. * * *
DRA 1984 amended section 71 to its present form, except that
under section 71(b)(1)(D), as amended by DRA 1984, there was also
a parenthetical requirement that in order for payments to
constitute alimony, the divorce or separation instrument state
that there is no liability on the payor spouse to make the
payments after the death of the payee spouse.3 However, under
3 As amended by the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, Pub. L.
98-369, 98 Stat. 795, sec. 71(b)(1)(D) provided as follows:
(D) there is no liability to make any such payment
for any period after the death of the payee spouse and
there is no liability to make any payment (in cash or
property) as a substitute for such payments after the
death of the payee spouse (and the divorce or
(continued...)
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