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separate maintenance were deductible by the payor. Installment
payments discharging the obligation to pay a principal sum
generally were not periodic payments and thus were not deductible
by the payor. An exception existed where installment payments
were deemed periodic payments if the payments either (1) lasted
or might have lasted more than 10 years from the date of the
divorce decree, or (2) were contingent upon the death of either
party, the payee’s remarriage, or a change in the economic status
of either party.9
In the cases respondent relies on, taxpayers attempted to
qualify for the exceptions under prior law by arguing that
installment payments and periodic payments were part of an
overall plan for support and were to be viewed as a single stream
of payments. These cases involved attempts by taxpayers to
“camouflage” installment payments by means of combining them with
periodic payments. Bernstein v. Commissioner, supra at 445. The
payment provisions in the cases under prior law contained
contradictory terms or lacked any indication that they were
intended to be read in conjunction with each other. These
factual scenarios are readily distinguishable from the instant
situation. Current law does not involve the issue of whether
payments are periodic or installment payments, and petitioner is
9See Yoakum v. Commissioner, 82 T.C. 128, 136 (1984); former
sec. 71(c)(1); former sec. 1.71-1(d)(3)(i) and (ii), Income Tax
Regs.
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