Cir

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) validly issues a Notice of Deficiency (“NOD”) to a partner in a partnership, when (1) no partnership-level proceeding is pending, (2) no notice of final partnership administrative adjustment (“FPAA”) has been issued, and (3) the normal three-year statute of limitations in 26 U.S.C. § 6229 (a) has not expired. As such, we affirm the Tax Court’s denial of Alex and Liset Meruelo’s (husband and wife and hereinafter re ferred to as the Meruelos or the petitioners) motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Facts

Mr. Meruelo was the sole member of Meruelo Capital Management, LLC (“MCM”). In 1999, MCM was a single-member limited liability company (LLC) and a disregarded entity by default, because it did not file a Form 8832 (which allows an LLC to elect to be treated as a corporation for that year). As such, MCM did not (and was not required to) file a federal tax return for 1999. Instead, all of MCM’s income and losses were to be reported on the Meruelos’ joint tax returns. See Treas. Reg. § 301.7701-3 (a), (b)(ii).

In 1999, MCM owned a 31.68 percent interest in Intervest Financial LLC (“Intervest”). Intervest had five…