Tim’s Tax News on the Tenth – July 2023

On June 20, 2023, the Tax Court in Sanders v. Commissioner, 160 TC No. 16 (2023) held that it lacked jurisdiction to receive a petition filed online eleven seconds after the listed due date and time. As a result, the Tax Clinic at Harvard Law filed an amicus brief arguing that the Court should consider the time Mr. Sanders started the transmission of the petition, and not the time DAWSON (the U.S. Tax Court’s electronic filing and case management system) logged the petition into its system. This argument was rejected by the Court.

Important to the Court’s reasoning is Tax Court Rule 22. Rule 22(d) states: “Timely Electronic Filing: A paper will be considered timely filed if it is electronically filed at or before 11:59 p.m., eastern time, on the last day of the applicable period for filing.” In this case, the issue seemed to be Mr. Sanders’ familiarity with navigating the DAWSON system, and so the Court provided some guidance on the responsibility placed upon a petitioner.

The Court found that the important moment for determining timeliness is the time of receipt, and not the time when the petitioner makes the effort to submit. In the context of electronic filing, the Court reasoned that user problems are analogous to traffic jams or car problems that can occur; and that they do not render the system inaccessible or otherwise unavailable to the public. The underlying principle here is that inaccessibility does not encompass problems that are unique to an individual. Further, the Court found that the difficulties Mr. Sanders experienced confirms that the DAWSON system was accessible and available to the public.

This case shows that mere seconds now matter in whether a case moves forward or fails at the outset, and waiting until the final moments to file is not a safe practice, since anything can go wrong resulting in significant consequences. 

If you would like more details, please do not hesitate to call our office. Our office has been successful in helping taxpayers with IRS and IDOR collection problems for over 30 years. If you have a tax or debt problem, please contact me at 847-705-9698 or thughes@lavellelaw.com and find out how we can help you.

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