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Mr. Chisum did not submit a motion or pleading identifying
himself as petitioner’s trustee until after the hearing of the
case at hand had been completed and the Court had pointed out the
inconsistency between Mr. Chisum’s documents and his claim that
he personally had been petitioner’s trustee since 1997.
Discussion
Our jurisdiction generally depends upon the issuance of a
valid notice of deficiency and the filing of a timely petition.
See Rule 13; Pyo v. Commissioner, 83 T.C. 626, 632 (1984); Mollet
v. Commissioner, 82 T.C. 618, 623 (1984); Keeton v. Commissioner,
74 T.C. 377, 379 (1980). Petitioner contests our jurisdiction on
the ground that no valid deficiency notice was issued.
Respondent asserts we must dismiss because no valid petition was
filed. For the reasons set forth below, we disagree with
petitioner and agree with respondent.11
Petitioner’s Motion To Dismiss
Section 6212(a) provides that, if the Secretary “determines”
that there is a deficiency in income tax, the Secretary is
authorized to send notice of such deficiency to the taxpayer. In
Scar v. Commissioner, 814 F.2d at 1369-1370, the Court of Appeals
11 It might be argued, see Lee Enters., Inc. v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1992-629, and cases cited therein, that
we have no occasion to reach the argument underlying petitioner’s
motion to dismiss because petitioner’s motion would be mooted by
our granting of respondent’s motion. In the interest of
completeness, we first address petitioner’s motion.
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