- 4 -
party’s intent.” Id. Petitioner testified that Ernestine Bethel
and he cohabitated for 9 years before 2003. However, petitioner
has offered no evidence that Ernestine Bethel intended to be
married to him during that time. On the contrary, in a written
statement dated August 12, 2004, Ernestine Bethel referred to
petitioner as her “ex-fiancee” rather than as her former spouse.
Consequently, we are unable to conclude from the record that the
requisite mutual assent existed for the creation of a common law
marriage between Ernestine Bethel and petitioner. Accordingly,
we find that no common law marriage existed and, consequently,
that S.L.B. was not petitioner’s stepchild during 2003. We now
turn to the claimed dependency exemption deduction, head-of-
household filing status, and earned income credit.
Dependency Exemption Deduction
Section 151(c) allows a taxpayer to deduct an annual
exemption amount for each dependent of the taxpayer. Section
152(a) defines “dependent” as follows:6
6We note that the Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004,
Pub. L. 108-311, sec. 201, 118 Stat. 1169, amended sec. 152,
effective for tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2004.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011