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demand that the burden fall upon the taxpayer to keep the
Commissioner informed as to his proper address.” Id. at 374
(citations omitted). Alta Sierra Vista spoke of respondent’s
“entitlement” to treat the address on a taxpayer’s most recent
tax return as his last known address. Respondent insists that
this “entitlement” creates a presumption which simply listing a
new address on a power-of-attorney form does not rebut.
Respondent then cites cases in which various documents other
than power-of-attorney forms were found insufficient to rebut
this presumption. His leading case is Tadros v. Commissioner,
763 F.2d 89 (2d Cir. 1985). Tadros featured a taxpayer who lived
in New York when he filed his 1981 tax return, but who moved to
New Jersey in January 1983. In March 1983, the Commissioner sent
a notice of deficiency to his old New York address, but the
Postal Service returned it as “undeliverable”.
Tadros argued that he had told the Commissioner of his move
to New Jersey in a letter he had written to the IRS in January
1983 on stationery printed with his New Jersey address. His
letter asked for copies of correspondence and said that he needed
the copies to replace originals that he had “‘lost or misplaced
in the process of moving.’” Id. at 92.
The Second Circuit held that the letter was a mere “routine
inquiry,” not amounting to an official change of address:
Tadros’s letter * * * indicated neither that Tadros had
permanently moved, nor whether the Jersey City address
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