Louise Demirjian - Page 17

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          economic hardship if relief is denied; (2) in the case of a                 
          liability that arose from a deficiency, the requesting spouse did           
          not know and had no reason to know of the items giving rise to              
          the deficiency; (3) the liability for which relief is sought is             
          attributable to the nonrequesting spouse; and (4) the                       
          nonrequesting spouse has a legal obligation pursuant to a divorce           
          decree or agreement to pay the outstanding liability (this factor           
          weighs against relief only if the requesting spouse has the                 
          obligation).  The economic hardship factor weighs against                   
          petitioner because she failed to provide any evidence                       
          establishing economic hardship in this case (and argues,                    
          unpersuasively, that the economic hardship requirement is                   
          “discriminatory and unconstitutional”).  Petitioner argues that             
          the knowledge or reason to know factor and the attribution factor           
          weigh in favor of granting her relief.  We address those                    
          arguments below.  The legal obligation factor is neutral in this            
          case because neither petitioner nor Apostle was required by their           
          divorce decree to pay any of the unpaid interest.                           
               Petitioner contends that, even though it was the improper              
          treatment of her income (i.e., the gain that she realized on the            
          sale of the New York apartment) on the first amended joint return           
          that caused an understatement on that return and the 1992-1994              
          interest liability to accrue, she had no knowledge or reason to             







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