- 12 - without the involvement of the Commissioner between parents who both claim the dependency exemption deduction based on providing support over the applicable thresholds. H. Rept. 98-432 (Part II), at 1498 (1984).10 Contrary to respondent’s assertions, the legislative history of section 152(e) does not provide support for deviating from the plain meaning of the statute that the special support test can apply to parents who have never married each other. Neither the House bill nor the conference report state that the amendment to section 152(e) was intended to apply only to married parents. Indeed, applying section 152(e)(1)(A)(iii) to both married parents and parents who have never married each other is consistent with the stated purpose of resolving dependency disputes without the Commissioner’s involvement in cases where parents both claim the dependency exemption deductions. Therefore, we hold that the special support test in section 152(e)(1) applies in this case. This means that Mrs. King is treated as having provided over half of Monique’s support for 1998 and 1999 and will be entitled to the dependency exemption deductions unless, pursuant to section 152(e)(2), she released her claim to the exemption deductions for Monique for these years. 10See also Bramante v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2002-228, citing the legislative history and stating that the pre-1985 version was often subjective and presented difficult problems of proof and substantiation.Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011