JOAN. Thou are a rare noodle, Master. Do what was done last time is thy rule, eh?

G. B. Shaw, Saint Joan, 1920

I’ve been waiting for an order tossing a day-late deficiency petition, to enable me to fire a broadside at Hallmark Research Collective, Inc.,  159 T. C. 6 (corrected), filed 12/5/22. And Letitia D. Morant, Docket No. 37844-21S, filed 1/26/23, provides me the opportunity.

Letitia used UPS Ground and handed the Brown Bombers her petition with time to spare, but alas, the packet hit Tax Court a day late. As UPS Ground is not one of the “blessed communion, fellowship divine” of Private Delivery Services, more particularly bounded and described in Notice 2016-30, 2016-18 I.R.B. 676, effective April 11, 2016, and inculcated by Ch J Kathleen (“TBS= The Big Shillelagh”) at p. 3 of said Order, she tosses Letitia.

Hallmark gets a mere nod at p. 2 of said Order. The Order itself might have been written long before the Supremes tried to bring discipline to the whole Congressional jurisdiction-vs-equitable-tolling conundrum in Boechler, P.C., 596 U. S. _____ (2022).

With deepest respect (because I like Judge David Gustafson as a person and respect him as a jurist), all his magnificent opinion in Hallmark says is “of course it’s jurisdictional, we’ve always done it this way.”

Taishoff says “Rare noodle, the Supremes said that isn’t good enough. Hallmark doesn’t address the core issue, that filing a deficiency petition in Tax Court is like the automatic stay in bankruptcy, 11 USC §362. IRS needs to know when they can start collecting. A late-filed petition resuscitated by equitable tolling, which could take place at any time, creates chaos in the collection process. That’s not the case with equitable tolling in a CDP case, because the NITL or NFTL has already issued; the actual levy may be stayed, but the Supremes ignored that (or maybe it wasn’t argued in Boechler, P.C.). But how does the Boechler reasoning not apply in deficiency cases as well as CDPs?”

I doubt Ms. Morant has the money to challenge Ch J TBS’ toss of her petition. But I hope some day-late deficiency petitioner does.