At Death Do Payments Stop? Alimony Revisited

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week affirmed the Tax Court's decision in the case of Johanson and Melzig v. Commissioner, TC Memo 2006-105 involving alimony.  In its original decision, the Tax Court expressed exasperation at having to yet again decide an issue the parties could have resolved in the decree itself-whether the payments would cease on the death of the recipient spouse as required by §71(b) for the payments to be treated as alimony.  Yet again, the recipient claimed the payments would not and the payor claimed they would, and the Tax Court had to then divine how a California state court would have ruled under California law.

The materials can be found at http://www.edzollars.com/2008-09-08_Alimony.pdf .

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