Madame and Monsieur, following their separation, reached an amicable agreement on the terms of payment by Monsieur of support to Madame, so that there was no judgment or written legal document setting out the amounts of support to be paid by him. However, they subsequently signed a document confirming that Madame had received the monthly payments from him.
In finding that this did not satisfy the requirement for a written separation agreement, the Agency reviewed the jurisprudence on the meaning of a “written agreement” and stated that the document presented by the taxpayer did not, in our opinion, represent a written agreement establishing obligations.