DeAnna S. Dotson and Robert L. Dotson - Page 10

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          See 10 U.S.C. sec. 1408(c)(2) (the USFSPA “does not create any              
          right, title, or interest which can be sold, assigned,                      
          transferred, or otherwise disposed of (including by inheritance)            
          by a spouse or former spouse”); Pfister v. Commissioner, supra              
          (“The USFSPA did not create any right or entitlement to military            
          retired pay”).                                                              
               In conclusion, under applicable Colorado law at the time of            
          the separation agreement and divorce decree, Mr. Jefferies’                 
          future retired military pay did not constitute property.                    
          Consequently, we are unpersuaded that the separation agreement              
          gave (or could have given) petitioner any ownership interest in             
          any such “property”.  Rather, consistent with the lower court’s             
          reasoning in In re Marriage of Ellis, supra, we conclude that the           
          military retirement payments are most reasonably regarded as                
          periodic payments in satisfaction of petitioner’s marital                   
          property rights.  Accordingly, the military retirement payments             
          are not includable in petitioners’ gross income.  Cf. Mivec v.              
          Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1981-695 (“[I]t is well settled that               
          where, upon divorce, a husband makes payments in satisfaction of            
          the property rights of his wife, the amounts received by the                
          wife, even though periodic and incident to a divorce, are capital           











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