Court Opinion

ID: 9855792
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:31:16.881409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:37:04.420584
License: Public Domain

SAND, Justice,
concurring specially.
Basically, I agree with the legal concepts employed in the opinion and its conclusions. However, I am compelled to express reservations with the commingling of tax issues, whether they be entitled benefits, breaks, exclusions, or taxability, with the equitable division of property in a divorce action.
Federal tax matters are generally not within the jurisdiction of the courts which have jurisdiction over domestic matters. The federal tax issues are invariably decided by other legal bodies, either legislative (Congress), administrative (administrative agencies), or judicial (tax courts), and in some instances in conjunction with all three. Thus, the final decision is not with the state court making the equitable distribution of the property. After a final decision has been reached on the tax matters then the court (having jurisdiction of domestic matters) would be in a better position to take into consideration such tax matters. But if these have not been resolved, the tax matters are mere possibilities and probabilities. Furthermore, what may appear to be “settled tax matters” may be changed abruptly without notice and even before the concepts relied upon in the property distribution are or can be implemented or carried out.
I believe it is much better to let the parties work out their tax problems rather than to saddle the courts with the problem of finding a solution for them. However, if the parties stipulated as to what they will consider the tax decision to be and agree to be bound by such agreement a different situation would result and the court would simply approve such stipulations as it does in any other proceedings affecting property settlement betwen the parties involved. Basically, I believe it is unfair to impose upon the court the tax problems that may arise as a result of property division. In *279any event, the parties should present to the court reliable material and answers to the tax questions rather than to have the court speculate as to what the tax situation will be.