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Tax Court Petition Deadlines May Resume July 15

Posted on June 25, 2020

The Tax Court announced that its clerk’s office will start receiving in-person deliveries July 10, seemingly making the office accessible for filing petitions.

Hand-delivered documents will be accepted beginning July 10 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, the court announced June 24.

Closed since March because of the coronavirus pandemic, the court recently announced it will start receiving mail July 10.

The earlier notice had said the Tax Court’s building would remain closed, leading to some confusion about the petition filing deadline after the IRS’s extension until July 15 using its disaster relief authority.

The Tax Court’s separate pronouncements on the petition filing deadline relied on Guralnik v. Commissioner, 146 T.C. 230 (2016), in which it held that the last day to file a petition couldn’t fall on a day its clerk’s office is inaccessible. With the court’s building closed, the clerk’s office has been inaccessible. The earlier announcement mentioned only the mail and said the building remained closed, making it unclear if the clerk’s office would be accessible.

T. Keith Fogg, director of the Harvard Law School Federal Tax Clinic, told Tax Notes that the new announcement makes it seem like the Tax Court is open enough for the filing deadlines. A taxpayer will be able to hand-deliver a petition, so it sounds like the court will be back in business, he said.

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