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satisfaction of the obligation ordered by the PDL issued in the
first, inchoate marital dissolution proceeding. To find an
answer, we must decide whether petitioner’s payment to Mr. Dubin
was pursuant to an obligation that would have been extinguished
by Ms. Devers’ death under either the terms of the PDL itself or
Missouri law. See Altmann v. United States, 89 AFTR 2d 485, 490,
2002-1 USTC par. 50,275, at 83,614 (E.D. Mo. 2001). Given that
the PDL is silent on the issue, we turn to State law.
“Although Federal law controls in determining petitioner’s
income tax liability * * *, State law is necessarily implicated
in the inquiry inasmuch as the nature of petitioner’s liability
for the payment” was based in Missouri law. Berry v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2000-373, affd. 36 Fed. Appx. 400 (10th
Cir. 2002); see also, e.g., Sampson v. Commissioner, 81 T.C. 614,
618 (1983), affd. without published opinion 829 F.2d 39 (6th Cir.
1987). In Commissioner v. Estate of Bosch , 387 U.S. 456, 465
(1967), the Supreme Court addressed the means for determining
State law in the context of a Federal tax case and stated:
the State’s highest court is the best authority on its
own law. If there be no decision by that court then
federal authorities must apply what they find to be the
state law after giving “proper regard” to relevant
rulings of other courts of the State. In this respect,
it may be said to be, in effect, sitting as a state
court.
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