James R. Carroll and Dorothy A. Carroll v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

DAVID A. NELSON, Circuit Judge.

This is a tax case that presents an issue on which the circuits are divided: whether the common law “mailbox rule,” under which proof of the mailing of a properly addressed communication bearing proper postage raises a rebuttable presumption of receipt in due course by the addressee, is a rule that applies to matter sent to the Internal Revenue Service by regular mail. Circuit precedent requires us to hold that the common law rule has no application where the IRS is involved. In this circuit, a taxpayer who sends a document to the IRS by regular mail, as opposed…