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her liberties. As a result, petitioner’s daughter moved from
petitioner’s house, but she returned to live there shortly
thereafter.
On his timely filed 1998 Federal income tax return,
petitioner claimed a dependency exemption deduction for his
daughter. Respondent disallowed that deduction because,
according to the notice of deficiency, petitioner “did not
establish” that he is “entitled to the exemption”.
Discussion
In general, a taxpayer is entitled to a dependency exemption
deduction for each of the taxpayer’s dependents. Sec. 151(c).
The term “dependent” includes a child of the taxpayer, over half
of whose support for the year is received, or treated as
received, from the taxpayer. Sec. 152(a). Because petitioner’s
daughter is the child of divorced parents, her support is
determined pursuant to section 152(e). That section provides,
subject to certain conditions not in dispute and exceptions not
applicable here, that the child is treated as having received
over half of his or her support from the parent who has custody
of the child for a greater portion of the year. That parent is
referred to as the custodial parent. Because the child is
treated as having received over half of his or her support from
the custodial parent, the custodial parent is generally entitled
to a dependency exemption deduction for the child.
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Last modified: May 25, 2011