IRS Delivery Rule Clashes With Judge-Made Law in Tax Refund Case

A Federal Circuit panel weighed whether it should defer to an IRS regulation or honor a judge-made rule in determining whether tax documents were delivered in time.

Ali Taha is appealing a lower court’s ruling that it didn’t have jurisdiction to hear his lawsuit seeking a $14,177 tax refund because the claim wasn’t filed on time. The IRS rejected his refund claim under a 2011 regulation (T.D. 9543) that interpreted tax code Section 7502, which allows a U.S. postmark stamp date to be treated as the date of delivery or payment and says that ...