Whatever sins, or discipline, it may have brought in its trail, Boechler, P. C. brought a great field of somber reasoning and copious citation of precedent in search of jurisdictional-vs-claim-processing statutory limitations. Judge Travis A. (“Tag”) Greaves is tasked with sorting out for Tax Court bench whether the 90-day cutoff for Section 7436 worker reclassification (EE vs IC) is or isn’t jurisdictional.

Boechler and its predecessors squelched off-the-cuff “drive-by” jurisdictional rulings. Hence the footnote in SECC cuts no ice; see my blogpost “Classified,” 4/3/14 for that one.

Judge Tag Greaves finds Section 7436(b)(2) goes to the rights of the parties, not the right of the court to decide. Thus the belated filer (it’s the usual day-late, dollar-short here, with a non-blessed PDS delivering a day late) is out unless the court finds some way to let them in.

Section 7436(a) bestows jurisdiction without mentioning the 90-day cutoff, and there’s no cross-referencing between (a) and (b).

For law review writers (and I need hardly remind my readers that I never was one), Judge Tag Greaves sorts through how the Supremes have divined what Congress meant, from noscitur in sociis (no) to prior construction (Congress using same magic language from prior statutes found to be jurisdictional in a subsequent amendment to the statute). Of course, since Section 7436 never made it to the Supremes, and hasn’t had a lot of icetime in Tax Court either, there’s not a lot to go on. 8 Cir did, but it was a drive-by. See my blogpost “Drill and Classify – Up In the Air,” 1/13/15. Judge Tag Greaves blows it off.

There’s preliminary argy-bargy about the USPS Form 3877, Firm Mailing Book For Accountable Mail, which is missing a USPS stamp, but Judge Tag Greaves buys the book because the two entries on either side of the disputed entry are properly stamped.

So Tax Court has jurisdiction.

Taishoff says, while this jurisdictional tohubohu makes great blogfodder (and long may it flourish), people’s rights and obligations and how to secure the “just, speedy, and inexpensive determination” thereof should depend on more than haruspicy. If Congress means to stamp out equitable tolling in Tax Court, let them say so. If only for Section 6213 deficiency cases, they should say so.

Btw, the case is Belagio Fine Jewelry, Inc., 162 T. C. 11, filed 6/25/24. And Judge Tag Greaves, while finding no jurisdictional bar here, expressly leaves equitable tolling for another day.