Debra J. Hord - Page 8




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         possibility that the petition might have been mailed after                   
         midnight, and thus on March 30, rather than March 29, 1999.                  
              Gladney testified that she mailed the petition by certified             
         mail and paid postage accordingly but never received a sender’s              
         receipt, because she had left the receipt at her office and did              
         not have time to return for it.  Gladney suggested no plausible              
         reason why the sender’s receipt should have been detached from               
         the Form 3800 (certified mail receipt) of which it was originally            
         part, though her testimony clearly suggests that she was aware               
         beforehand that it had been detached and remained at her office.             
              More fundamentally, however, we find Gladney’s testimony                
         implausible and self-serving.  As a practicing tax attorney,                 
         Gladney should have been aware of the risks associated with                  
         mailing the petition at the 23d hour of the last day prescribed              
         for filing it with the Court.  Cf. Drake v. Commissioner, 554                
         F.2d 736, 739 (5th Cir. 1977) (“we could hardly ignore the fact              
         that the petition was mailed at 6:00 p.m. on the ninetieth day--a            
         circumstance which could not help but raise the spectre of                   
         possible timeliness problems”).  By mailing the petition by                  
         certified mail, as she did, she could overcome those risks by                
         virtue of having a timely postmarked sender’s receipt.  See sec.             
         301.7502-1(c)(2), Proced. & Admin. Regs.  She claims not to have             
         received one.  The evidence indicates that there would have been             
         hundreds of Forms 3800 at the post office.  The record contains              







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