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mailed from one location in Washington, D.C., to another location in
Washington, D.C., is 1 to 2 days. The petition in this case was
delivered to the Court 10 days after it was allegedly mailed and 8
days after the expiration of the 90-day filing period. It follows
that the petition was not delivered to the Court within the ordinary
mailing time.
Where a petition is mailed to the Court in an envelope bearing
a private postage meter postmark, but the petition is not delivered
to the Court within the ordinary mailing time for that class of
mail, a taxpayer seeking to rely on the timely mailing/timely filing
rule must establish that the petition was actually deposited in the
mail before the expiration of the 90-day period, that the delay in
receiving the petition was due to a delay in the transmission of the
mail, and the cause of the delay. Petitioners have not offered
persuasive proof with respect to the date that the petition was
actually placed in the mail. We have nothing but Ms. Hunt's
conflicting declarations regarding her handling of the petition. At
best, we are left to speculate that the envelope bearing the
petition was left in the lobby of Mr. Selter's office building on or
about February 28, 2000, for pickup by a postal carrier. Moreover,
there is no evidence in the record demonstrating that the delay in
the delivery of the petition to the Court was due to a delay in the
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Last modified: May 25, 2011