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Section 6212(a) expressly authorizes respondent, after
determining a deficiency, to send a notice of deficiency to the
taxpayer by certified or registered mail. The taxpayer, in turn,
ordinarily has 90 days from the date the notice of deficiency is
mailed to file a petition in this Court for a redetermination of
the contested deficiency. Sec. 6213(a). However, if the notice
of deficiency is addressed to a taxpayer outside of the United
States, then the taxpayer has 150 days to file a petition.
By virtue of section 7502, a petition that is timely mailed
is deemed to be timely filed. However, for this latter rule to
apply, the postmark date appearing on the envelope containing the
petition must be timely, that is, the postmark date must fall
within the applicable 90-day, or 150-day, time period. Further,
the provisions of section 7502 contemplate that the envelope be
deposited in the mail in the United States, meaning that the
envelope is deposited with the domestic mail service of the U.S.
Postal Service. Sec. 7502(a)(2)(B); sec. 301.7502-1(c)(1)(ii),
Proced. and Admin. Regs. Finally, and perhaps most importantly,
section 7502 does not apply to any document that is deposited
with the mail service of any other country. Sec. 301.7502-
1(c)(1)(ii), Proced. and Admin. Regs.3
3 Note that sec. 7502(b) expressly makes the provisions of
sec. 7502 applicable in the case of postmarks not made by the
U. S. Postal Service only if and to the extent provided by
regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury. As
stated above, sec. 301.7502-1(c)(1)(ii), Proced. and Admin.
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Last modified: May 25, 2011