Source: http://masscases.com/cases/app/83/83massappct598.html
Timestamp: 2019-03-23 19:22:14
Document Index: 793991102

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 151', '§ 152', '§ 151', '§ 1', '§ 152', '§ 1']

IV vs. HANG, 83 Mass. App. Ct. 598
PHALLA IV vs. SAMATH HANG.
Divorce and Separation, Judgment. Probate Court, Divorce.
Discussion of the dependent child exemption under Federal income tax law. [599-601]
In a divorce action, the Probate and Family Court judge had the authority to allow the husband, in conjunction with an order for child support, to claim the children as dependents on his State and Federal income tax returns, over the objections of the wife. [601-603]
Background. The parties, Phalla Iv (wife) and Samath Hang (husband), were married in 2004 and separated in 2010. Two children were born of the marriage. By a judgment of divorce nisi dated April 27, 2011, the wife was awarded physical custody of the children, the parties' property was divided, and the husband was ordered to pay child support in the amount of $228 per week. The judgment further provides: "Husband shall be entitled to claim both the unemancipated children, as dependents on his
[S]tate and [F]ederal tax returns until each child is emancipated or further order of the Court. The Court finds that Husband shall be entitled to claim all the children for tax purposes." [Note 1]
Thus, in light of "prior law," this court's interpretation of the 1984 amendment, and the provisions of the Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines (Guidelines), see Department of Rev.
v. Foss, 45 Mass. App. Ct. 452 , 460 (1998) (no abuse of discretion in the judge's order that the parties alternate taking the child as an exemption for income tax purposes; such an order is expressly permitted by the Guidelines), probate judges have long allocated dependency exemptions to noncustodial parents.
Discussion. The wife argues that the provision of the judgment concerning the allocation of dependents conflicts with § 151 and § 152 of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C. §§ 151, 152 (2006), and the interpretation and explanation of the law in the Treasury regulations. She asserts that the present system of dependency exemptions and credits arising therefrom
no longer allows State courts to make awards of dependency exemptions, because under current Federal tax law the custodial parent "is entitled to the dependents unless that custodial parent has agreed to release the dependents using a specified form or format." Pointing to Example 18 of Treas. Reg. § 1.152-4, the wife states that even a divorce decree requiring a parent to execute a release so that the noncustodial parent can claim the exemption (something that the judge did not order in the present case) is "ineffective to allocate the right to claim the child as a dependent." Therefore, in the wife's view, the judge's order awarding the husband the right to claim the children as dependents is "unlawful," and she is entitled to claim both children as dependents. We are not persuaded.
Both the 1984 amendment and current Federal law require that in order for noncustodial parent to claim a child as a dependent, the custodial parent must execute a written declaration releasing the right to so claim the child. As noted, we held in Bailey, supra at 504-505, that a judge properly may allocate dependency exemptions. In view of the foregoing, we are persuaded that the general holding in Bailey continues to have vitality here. Under Bailey, a judge has authority to allocate dependency exemptions under the similar provisions of the 1984 amendment, and, subject to the caveats discussed supra, that authority has not been abrogated by the further amendments to 26 U.S.C. § 152. [Note 4] Although not accorded precedential
weight, our summary disposition order in Zoffreo v. Zoffreo, 76 Mass. App. Ct. 1105 (2010), is also persuasive on this point (in affirming an order that the wife was entitled to claim dependency for the parties' children under the Internal Revenue Code, this court cited to Bailey, supra, for the proposition that while a custodial parent was normally entitled to such a deduction, a State court judge has the power to allocate dependency exemptions for divorced parents).
[Note 4] Our conclusion is not inconsistent with Example 18(ii) set out in 26 C.F.R. § 1.152-4(g), which states, in the context of the scenario posited in Example 18(i), that "[t]he order in the divorce decree requiring [the custodial parent] to execute a Form 8332 is ineffective to allocate the right to claim Child as a dependent to [the custodial parent]." We interpret Example 18 to mean that a State court order itself is not enough under current law to effectuate the allocation (or transfer) of dependents; Federal law pertaining to the release of the exemption must be complied with. However, we perceive nothing in the example that would preclude a State court from allocating an exemption (or ordering that a custodial parent execute an appropriate form releasing the exemption) and then enforcing that order on the State level through a contempt proceeding. We note, further, that Example 18(iii), which presumably is based on the factual scenario set out in Example 18(i) (i.e., where the State court order requires the custodial parent to execute a Form 8332 release), provides that if the custodial parent executes the form, and the noncustodial parent attaches it to his tax return, then the noncustodial parent may claim the child as a dependent.