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of section 6015 and refrain from looking to State law, a question
arises as to where courts should derive such guidance.
In addition, petitioner’s approach would lead to a very
complex factual analysis to trace the acquisition of the assets
used to make over 20 years of tax payments. It is likely that a
married couple will continue to acquire assets throughout their
relationship. Tracing the acquisition of those assets to
ascertain what assets should be attributed to which spouse is an
administrative nightmare that would severely impede collection
and lead to layers of judicial interpretation and analysis. We
think Congress did not intend to create such a difficult factual
issue in adopting section 6015.
III. Concern With Denial of Effective Relief
Petitioner suggests that our holding today will frustrate
congressional intent by effectively denying section 6015 relief
to persons in community property States. This suggestion appears
to assume that the marital community continues after the year for
which relief is sought, which is obviously not always the case.
Nevertheless, we will examine the consequences of our holding
where the spouse seeking relief remains married in a community
property State after the taxable year in question, as in the
present case.
The Ordlocks remained married in California. They continued
to accumulate assets and make payments on their joint tax
liabilities for 1982, 1983, and 1984 for over two decades. If
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