Bernard Bloch v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

Deficiencies in income taxes were assessed against appellant by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue for the years 1947, 1948, 1952 and 1953. At the time the assessments were made and notice thereof given, appellant was an inmate of Terminal Island Federal Penitentiary.

Appellant prepared petitions for a re-determination of the deficiencies and filed them with the Tax Court. The petitions were dismissed for the reason that they were not filed within the 90-day period required by sections 6213(a) and 7502(a) of the 1954 Code, 26 U.S.C.A. §§ 6213 (a), 7502(a); and that therefore the Tax Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain them.

In order to clearly distinguish the two petitions under consideration, we will refer to them by the numbers endorsed thereon in this Court. No. 15,728 refers to the assessment for the years 1952 and 1953, notice of which was mailed to appellant on November 6, 1956. It is established without contradiction that appellant prepared a petition to the Tax Court asking a redetermination of the assessment and on the first day of February 1957, the 87th day after the issuance of the notice of deficiency, placed it in the hands of a prison official known as a…