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benefit, not his former spouse’s. Accordingly, we hold that
petitioner’s payments to his Thrift Savings Plan are not
deductible alimony.
Similarly, petitioner contends that his contributions to his
retirement plan are deductible alimony payments. Petitioner
contends that, because he must contribute to his retirement plan,
and because creditable benefits continue to accrue after the
marriage, he essentially is being forced to make alimony
payments. Petitioner further contends that the formula set forth
in the divorce decree is incorrect because it does not fix the
number of years of creditable benefits and that wages are not
property. Respondent argues that the interest in the retirement
plan allotted to petitioner’s former spouse is part of the
property settlement. We agree with respondent.
Petitioner fails to understand the function of the formula
set forth in the divorce decree. The divorce decree provides as
follows:
The plaintiff [sic] share of retirement shall be
calculated using a fraction where the numerator shall
be 22.5, representing the number of years of the
marriage, and the denominator shall be the total number
of years during which creditable retirement benefits
were acquired by the defendant, times fifty percent.
The total number of years of creditable benefits (years of
service) does not have to be fixed; that is the purpose of
numerator, 22.5 years, the duration of the marriage. The
numerator in the equation limits the percentage of the funds to
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