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DAYS INN A DAY LATE
January 17, 2007
The tax law treats postmarks from some private delivery services the same as Postal Service postmarks for purposes of determining whether a tax filing is timely. A taxpayer learned the hard way that you need to make sure that the postmark is timely.
Joanne Austin was filing a Tax Court petition. She was in Baltimore on business the day the petition needed to be shipped, so she left it with the desk clerk at a Days Inn hotel to give to the Federal Express driver later in the day. The petition was time-stamped the following day by Federal Express. The Tax Court says that the time stamp, not the desk clerk, determined whether the petition was timely filed. She was late, and the case was thrown out.
Tax Attorney Krieg Mitchell thinks it was dirty pool for the IRS to challenge the timeliness of the filing. Maybe so, but it gives a sobering lesson for the rest of us: make sure you get the postmark or delivery date-stamp in your own hands to prove timely filing. Don't rely on a motel desk clerk; don't rely on an office postage meter; and especially don't rely on the IRS to cut you any slack.
Russ Fox is also on the case.
Cite: Austin, T.C. Memo 2007-11.
Related: IF YOU AREN'T E-FILING, USE CERTIFIED MAIL
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