December 21, 2012 | Tax Laws
The Use of Mail Delivery Services to Timely File a Petition with Tax Court
A timely mailed petition to Tax Court can be treated as if it was timely filed, even if not received by the filing due date if mailed using an acceptable mail carrier. Therefore, a petition received by the Court after the 90-day period is considered to be received timely if the date of the U.S. Postal Service postmark was stamped on the envelope that is within the 90-day period.
Taxpayers can choose to use a private delivery service to mail in a petition. However, they need to proceed with Great Caution. Under the tax law, a private delivery service must be specifically approved by the IRS. Under Notice 2004-83, it states the following list of designated private delivery services for FedEx:
- FedEx Priority Overnight
- FedEx Standard Overnight
- FedEx 2 Day
- FedEx International Priority
- FedEx International First
If a taxpayer uses a FedEx service not listed above, a Tax Court petition will not be considered timely filed as of the date it was mailed if it was not received by the Tax Court within the 90-day period.
Attorney Timothy Hart
Timothy S Hart, the founding partner of the tax law firm of Timothy S. Hart Law Group, P.C. is both a New York Tax Lawyer & Certified Public Accountant. His area of expertise includes innovative solutions to solve your Internal Revenue Service and New York State tax problems, including tax settlements through the Federal and New York State offer in compromise programs, filing unfiled tax returns, voluntary disclosures, tax audits, and criminal investigations. [ Attorney Bio ]