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A. General Rules; Statutes
Louisiana law provides that “A matrimonial regime[15] may be
legal, contractual, or partly legal and partly contractual.”
Art. 2326. Under Louisiana law, “The legal regime of community
of acquets and gains applies to spouses domiciled in this state”
(art. 2334), and “Each spouse owns a present undivided one-half
interest in the community property”, art. 2336. As a result, a
Louisiana married person under the legal regime is taxable under
Federal law on one-half the earnings of his or her spouse.
United States v. Mitchell, 403 U.S. 190 (1971); see Case of
Hamner, 411 So.2d 567, 568-569 (La. App. 1st Cir. 1982), revd. on
a different issue 427 So.2d 1188 (La. 1983).
The “legal” regime is commonly referred to as “community
property”. The “contractual” regime alternative referred to in
article 2326, is authorized in article 2328, as follows:
A matrimonial agreement is a contract establishing
a regime of separation of property or modifying or
terminating the legal regime. Spouses are free to
establish by matrimonial agreement a regime of
separation of property or modify the legal regime as
provided by law. The provisions of the legal regime
that have not been excluded or modified by agreement
retain their force and effect.
Under article 2331--
15 Art. 2325 provides the following definition:
A matrimonial regime is a system of principles and
rules governing the ownership and management of the
property of married persons as between themselves and
toward third persons.
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