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“Last Date to Petition the Tax Court”, here the second date
appeared in close proximity to the words “In Re: Due Process
Appeal (Tax Court)”. A determination letter triggering a
taxpayer’s right to appeal to the Tax Court pursuant to section
6330(d)(1), unlike a notice of deficiency triggering a taxpayer’s
right to petition the Tax Court to redetermine a deficiency
pursuant to section 6213(a), need not show the last day on which
the taxpayer may file an appeal. Cf. Rochelle v. Commissioner,
116 T.C. 356 (2001), affd. 293 F.3d 740 (5th Cir. 2002).
Although the appearance of the February 16 date may have been
confusing to the petitioners, we disagree with their
characterization of such date as demonstrating that “[t]he Notice
on its face clearly states that the Due Process Appeal to the Tax
Court is [due] February 16, 2002.” The Notices do no such thing,
particularly in light of their clear admonition that, to be
effective, the petition must be filed with the Tax Court within
30 days “from the date of this letter.”
When they received the notices, on December 20, 2001,
petitioners had 28 days in which to either clarify that the 30-
day period ran from December 18, or file a protective petition
with this Court pending later clarification of the due date.
Instead, they waited until January 23, 6 days after the 30-day
period had expired, to seek clarification. Under the
circumstances, the equities of the situation do not favor them.
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