Cynthia L. Rowe - Page 15

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          Regs., which provides that an absence will be disregarded “if * *           
          * it is reasonable to assume that the taxpayer or * * * [other              
          household occupant] will return to the household”.  This Court              
          refused to apply a reasonable assumption of return standard in              
          the case of a dependent who was absent due to an extended                   
          illness, concluding instead that in these circumstances “the true           
          test is not whether the return may be prevented by an act of God,           
          but rather whether there are indications that a new permanent               
          habitation has been chosen.”  Hein v. Commissioner, supra at 835.           
               The Commissioner subsequently acquiesced in Hein, 1958-2               
          C.B. 3, and then, in 1966, adopted it in a revenue ruling.  In              
          Rev. Rul. 66-28, 1966-1 C.B. at 32, the Commissioner, relying on            
          Hein, ruled that “confinement” to a nursing home due to illness             
          would be considered a “temporary absence due to special                     
          circumstances” for purposes of the dependency exemption                     
          regulations (section 1.152-1(b), Income Tax Regs.),                         
          notwithstanding the extended length of the absence or the                   
          probability, given the dependent's age and condition, that return           
          would not occur:                                                            
                    In view of the decision in the Hein case, a period                
               of time during which a dependent is confined to a                      
               nursing home because of illness will likewise be                       
               considered a temporary absence due to special                          
               circumstances for the purpose of section 152(a)(9) of                  
               the Code, even though such absence is for an extended                  
               period of time. There must, of course, be an absence of                
               an intent on the part of the taxpayer and the dependent                
               to change the dependent's principal place of abode.                    
               The possibility or probability that death might                        





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