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the court did not intend to award an ownership interest in the
Arden Road house to petitioner is shown by the fact that,
elsewhere in the divorce decree, the court ordered Mrs. Suhr to
transfer her title in the 1577-1579 South High Street property to
petitioner. This shows that when the court intended to award
ownership, it did so expressly; it did not expressly award
ownership of the Arden Road house, which we construe to mean it
did not so intend.
The fact that the court awarded petitioner one-half of the
proceeds on the sale of the Arden Road house does not mean that
it awarded him an ownership interest in the property. See
Urbauer v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1997-227 (tax liability is
triggered by a taxpayer’s ownership interest in property, not by
his or her marital interest in the proceeds from the sale of the
property); Rushworth v. Rosie, No. 98-G-2186 (Ohio Ct. App. Oct.
22, 1999) (a right to receive proceeds from the sale of property
is not an ownership interest under Ohio law). In Friscone v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1996-193, a divorce decree awarded the
wife 55 percent of the proceeds from the sale of stock owned by
her former husband and provided that she was liable for 55
percent of the tax due to the sale of the stock. We held that
the divorce decree awarded the wife a 55-percent ownership
interest in the stock. The Ohio court did not provide comparable
language in the instant case.
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