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as of the date of trial, no additional payments on petitioner’s
outstanding 1996 tax liability had been made.
For 1997 petitioner and her former spouse initially filed
timely separate individual returns. The $17,163 income tax
liability reported on petitioner’s 1997 return remains, for the
most part, unpaid and results almost entirely from reporting her
community property share of her former spouse’s farming income.
The $29,076 income tax liability reported on the separate 1997
return of petitioner’s former spouse was paid in full with the
return.
Not surprisingly, it appears that petitioner’s domestic and
financial situations deteriorated simultaneously. As of the
close of 1997, divorce proceedings had been initiated. As noted
above, petitioner and her former spouse were divorced in January
1998, prior to the date that each had filed a separate 1997
return. The divorce decree (including other documents
incorporated by reference) required petitioner and her former
spouse to file separate 1997 Federal income tax returns and
presumably that is why they did so. Other relevant provisions of
the divorce decree: (1) Obligate petitioner’s former spouse to
pay to petitioner $1,500 per month in child support; (2) award
the marital residence to petitioner; (3) assign the liability for
the mortgage and real estate taxes on the marital residence to
petitioner’s former spouse; (4) provide that petitioner’s
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