Commissioner v. Lester

The sole question presented by this suit, in which the Government seeks to recover personal income tax deficiencies, involves the validity of respondent’s deductions *300from his gross income for the taxable years 1951 and 1952 of the whole of his periodic payments during those years to his divorced wife pursuant to a written agreement entered into by them and approved by the divorce court. The Commissioner claims that language in this agreement providing “[i]n the event that any of the [three] children of the parties hereto shall marry, become emancipated, or die, then the payments herein…