Tax court petition filing.

The Service's failure to stamp a Tax Court petition filing deadline on a deficiency notice did not render the deficiency invalid, according to Eric E. Smith, 114 TC No. 29. The Tax Court ruled that the failure to provide a date was insufficient to toll the statute of limitations.

In March 1999, the taxpayers received a deficiency notice concerning their timely filed 1995 return. The notice did not list a Tax Court petition filing deadline. In response to notification from the taxpayers' attorney, the taxpayers received another copy of the notice with a stamped petition filing deadline of June 3, 1999. The taxpayers timely filed a Tax Court petition contesting the deficiency.

Sec. 6212(a) provides that a taxpayer has 90 days after the mailing of a deficiency notice to file a petition for redetermination with the Tax Court. The Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, Section 3463(a), required that deficiency notices include the last day a Tax Court petition contesting the deficiency can be filed.

The taxpayers argued that the lack of such a date on their original deficiency notice invalidated it; the Service responded that the omission was a "technical but harmless violation"; further, the notice was valid because the taxpayers received it without prejudicial delay.

Looking to Tenth Circuit decisions (to which an appeal would lie), and citing Scheidt, 967 F2d 1448 (10th Cir. 1992), the Tax Court held that the failure to include a petition filing deadline did not invalidate the deficiency notice, because the taxpayers received the notice and timely filed a petition.