Van Dyke v. Commissioner

Petitioner, W. S. Van Dyke, seeks reversal of a decision of the Board of Tax Appeals which determined that there was a deficiency of $31,273.72 in respect of petitioner’s income tax for 1935.

The question is whether, as claimed by petitioner, salary earned and received by him after a property settlement with his wife, Zina Bertha Van Dyke, on January 7, 1935, was community property and therefore taxable one-half to each spouse, or whether, as claimed by respondent, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, such salary was the separate property of petitioner and therefore taxable to him alone.

Petitioner and his wife were, at all pertinent times, domiciled in California. On January 7, 1935, they made an agreement adjusting and settling their financial affairs and property rights. Thereby petitioner’s wife- “relinquished and surrendered forever all claims of every nature” which she then had or might thereafter acquire against any property which petitioner then had or might thereafter acquire. Thereafter, on January 29, 1936, petitioner and his wife were divorced.

Salary earned and received by petitioner before January 7, 1935, was community property in which he and his wife had…