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what is apparently page 28 of the 1998 version of IRS Publication
17, Your Federal Income Tax.1 This chart states in relevant part
that a noncustodial parent passes the support test if “there is a
decree or agreement executed after 1984 that unconditionally
entitles the noncustodial parent to the exemption” (emphasis
added). On the following page of this publication, the listed
requirements pertaining to a noncustodial parent explicitly state
that such a post-1984 decree or agreement must state that “the
noncustodial parent can claim the child as a dependent without
regard to any condition, such as payment of support.” The
publication further states that, in order to use such a decree or
agreement in claiming an exemption deduction, the taxpayer must
attach to his or her return a copy of certain pages of the decree
or agreement which contains the signature of the taxpayer’s
former spouse. Petitioner did not attach to his return a copy of
the relevant portions of his divorce decree. Furthermore,
attaching the decree to the return would not have been sufficient
because the decree by its terms did not unconditionally entitle
petitioner to the exemption deduction: The decree provided that
entitlement to the deduction was contingent upon petitioner’s
prompt payment of child support.2
1A copy of the flowchart is in evidence. The Court takes
judicial notice of the publication in its entirety.
2We note that--even if the instructions upon which
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Last modified: May 25, 2011