- 6 -
his tax returns as exemptions”. There was no statement that the
wife would not claim the children as dependents. The order was
approved by the wife’s attorney and the court, but she had not
signed the order. We held that the provisions of the final
divorce decree did not meet the requirements or the substance of
Form 8332. Inter alia, the taxable years for which the
exemptions were released were not stated, and the statement did
not provide that the custodial parent would not claim exemptions
for the children. Furthermore, the wife had not signed the
order.
While in this case Loretta did sign the separation
agreement, that agreement was specifically not incorporated in
the final divorce decree. The agreement did not set forth the
taxable years for which it applied.
More importantly, the separation agreement did not provide
that Loretta would not claim exemptions for the children, and,
indeed, she did claim the exemptions for the 2001 taxable year.
In White v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1996-438, we held that the
custodial parent’s letter, attached to the noncustodial parent’s
return, was insufficient under section 152(e). The custodial
parent did not include an explicit statement that she agreed not
to claim the exemption and did not state the years in which she
would release the claim to the dependency exemption deduction.
Id. While the custodial parent also did not include her Social
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011