Lester Johnson and Sherelle D. Brooks-Johnson - Page 7

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               Section 6212(a) authorizes the Secretary or his delegate,              
          upon determining that there is a deficiency in income tax, to               
          send a notice of deficiency "to the taxpayer by certified mail or           
          registered mail."  Section 6212(b)(1) provides that a notice of             
          deficiency, in respect of an income tax, "shall be sufficient" if           
          it is "mailed to the taxpayer at his last known address".                   
          Generally, the Commissioner has no duty to effectuate delivery of           
          the notice after it is mailed.  Monge v. Commissioner, supra at             
          33.                                                                         
               Neither section 6212 nor the regulation promulgated                    
          thereunder, section 301.6212-1, Proced. & Admin. Regs., defines             
          what constitutes a taxpayer's "last known address".  We have                
          defined it as the taxpayer's last permanent address or legal                
          residence known by the Commissioner, or the last known temporary            
          address of a definite duration to which the taxpayer has directed           
          the Commissioner to send all communications during such a period.           
          Weinroth v. Commissioner, 74 T.C. 430, 435 (1980); Alta Sierra              
          Vista, Inc. v. Commissioner, 62 T.C. 367, 374 (1974), affd.                 
          without published opinion 538 F.2d 334 (9th Cir. 1976).  Stated             
          otherwise, it is the address to which, in light of all the                  
          surrounding facts and circumstances, the Commissioner reasonably            
          believed the taxpayer wished the notice to be sent.  Weinroth v.            
          Commissioner, supra.  The relevant focus is thus on the                     
          Commissioner's knowledge, rather than on what in fact may have              





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