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Secretary in the notice of deficiency shall be treated
as timely filed. [Emphasis added.]
In his petition and his objection to respondent’s motion to
dismiss, petitioner argues that the last sentence of section
6213(a) requires that, where the Commissioner fails to provide
the petition date in the notice of deficiency, any petition filed
by the taxpayer will be treated as having been timely filed.3
Accordingly, petitioner contends that his petition is timely
under section 6213(a) despite the fact that it was filed 56 days
after expiration of the 90-day period prescribed by the first
sentence of that section.
Respondent does not address at length the merits of
petitioner’s argument described above. Rather, respondent simply
denies that the last sentence of section 6213(a) operates to
treat petitioner’s petition as having been timely filed.
Implicit in respondent’s denial is his contention that the last
sentence of section 6213(a) has no application in this case.
We begin our analysis with the actual text of the provision
in dispute. The relief offered by the last sentence of section
6213(a) (that is, treating the petition as having been timely
3 Petitioner’s argument, if accepted, would afford
taxpayers who receive a deficiency notice lacking the petition
date with an unlimited time period in which to timely file their
Tax Court petitions. We note that the existence of an unlimited
filing period could produce uncertainty as to (a) the ability of
the Commissioner to assess the determined deficiency given the
restriction contained in the second sentence of sec. 6213(a), and
(b) the tolling of the period of limitations on assessment
provided by sec. 6503.
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