James A. Rochelle - Page 10





                                       - 10 -                                         
               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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