Charles E. Shepherd v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

POSNER, Chief Judge.

Charles Shepherd’s appeal from two orders of the Tax Court raises an important and, in this circuit, novel question of appellate jurisdiction with regard to one of the orders. The other order, in which the Tax Court dismissed for lack of jurisdiction Shepherd’s petition complaining about his taxes for 1990 and 1996, is unproblematic and so we begin there. He did 'not attach to that petition a notice of deficiency, and the Internal Revenue Service cannot find any record of its having sent him such a notice with respect to those years. Without a notice of deficiency,…