If I may double up on metaphor and describe an impossible play, Gradi Jacques Muyembi Kayembe & Melkam Muyembi, Docket No. 16438-25S, filed 8/3/26, both beat the throw and slid in under the tag.

I am sure Ch J Patrick J. (“Scholar Pat”) Urda was far too engrossed in study in his youth to play much baseball, but I can imagine him as umpire, crouched over third base as Gradi & Mel slide in, then leaping up and stretching out both arms with palms downward and yelling “Safe!” as Frank (“Busy”) Bisignano races from the dugout bellowing in protest.

But Gradi & Mel actually used  FedEx 2 Day, a PDS enrolled in the “blessed communion, fellowship divine,” more particularly bounded and described in I.R.S. Notice 2016-30, 2016-18 I.R.B. 676. Hence Section 7502(a) mailed-is-filed saves Gradi & Mel.

Moreover, the SND they’re petitioning gave a petition due date seven (count ’em, seven) days after date of mailing, so Gradi & Mel get the seven on top of 90-from-mailing.

However, as the late-night Telehucksters say “But wait! There’s more!”

“The 90th day after August 29, 2025 [mailing plus 7], was November 27, 2025, Thanksgiving Day, a legal holiday. The face of the notice of deficiency stated that the last day to file a petition in Tax Court was Friday, November 28, 2025, the following day. However, on that day the Court was administratively closed. The period within which to file a petition was thus tolled by I.R.C. section 7451(b), which provides that when a filing location is inaccessible on the date a petition is due, the period for filing a petition is tolled for the number of days within the period of inaccessibility plus 14 days. See Sall v. Commissioner, 161 T.C. 325, 327–28 (2023). Adding the one day of inaccessibility to the 14-day tolling period required by I.R.C. section 7451(b)(1) extended the petition deadline by 15 days, to December 13, 2025. As December 13, 2025, was a Saturday, the petition deadline was further extended to the following Monday, December 15, 2025.

“The Petition was received and filed by the Court on December 16, 2025. The shipping label on the envelope containing the Petition shows that it was shipped on December 13, 2025, by FedEx 2 Day, and scheduled to be delivered on December 16, 2025. FedEx electronic database tracking information is consistent in showing December 13, 2025, as the ship date and FedEx 2 Day as the service.” Order, at p. 2.

For Madiodio Sall’s story, see my blogpost “Take Two,” 11/30/23.

Gradi & Mel can dust off their uniforms and hug the base.