Court Opinion

ID: 9531965
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:16:32.697148+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:38.269613
License: Public Domain

McCown, J.,
concurring in result only.
The modification of the decree here is not a modification of provisions for payment of child support. It is instead a modification of a portion of a divorce decree which attempted to' determine for the future which parent would be. entitled to federal income tax dependency exemptions for the children. That issue is determinable by federal law and generally depends upon actual amounts of support furnished by each parent during the tax year. That factual determination cannot be made in advance. Neither should the decree purport to fix and determine the allocation of future dependency exemptions to one or the other of the *395parents. A divorce court should consider the impact of federal income tax laws and regulations upon the parties in fixing amounts of child support or in allocating child support payments between individual children. Modifications should ordinarily be made upon the same considerations and in the same fashion. A decree in either case should avoid judicial conclusions or determinations as to the allocation of future federal income tax dependency exemptions.
Clinton, J., joins in concurrence.