Opinion ID: 2783088
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exception for address obtained from the

Text: United States Postal Service—(i) Updating taxpayer addresses. The IRS will update taxpayer addresses maintained in IRS records by referring to data accumulated and maintained in the United States Postal Service (USPS) National Change of Address database … (NCOA database)…. [A] new address in the NCOA database is the taxpayer's last known address, unless the IRS is given clear and concise notification of a different address…. The last-known-address inquiry under § 301.6212-2 focuses on the information that was in the IRS’s possession at the time it mailed the deficiency notice at issue. See I.R.C. § 6212(b)(1) (making notice sufficient “if mailed to the … last known address”) (emphasis added); Treas. Reg. § 301.6212- 2(a) (focusing on the information the IRS “is given”); Eschweiler, 946 F.2d at 48. Under subpart (a) of the regulation, a taxpayer’s last known address is presumptively the one shown on his most recently filed and processed tax return. To update his address, the taxpayer must file a new return or give the IRS “clear and concise notification.” Thus, as under our prior case law, see Eschweiler, 946 F.2d at 48, it is the taxpayer’s responsibility to properly notify the IRS if he wants correspondence sent to an address other than the one on file. The revenue procedures in effect when the IRS issued No. 13-3363 17 Gyorgy’s deficiency notices permitted notification either in writing—through a signed statement, a response to certain correspondence from the IRS, or the IRS’s change-of-address form—or by oral statement directly to an IRS employee who initiated contact with the taxpayer. See Rev. Proc. 2001-18 § 5.04-05, 2001-1 C.B. 708 (effective Feb. 20, 2001), superseded by Rev. Proc. 2010-16, 2010-1 C.B. 664 (effective June 1, 2010). Additionally, subpart (b)(2) of the regulation treats a new address in the postal service’s NCOA database as sufficient notification. Other than information in the NCOA database, however, a new address obtained from a payer or another third party does not count as clear and concise notification. Treas. Reg. § 301.6212-2(b)(1). This rule is consistent with our prior decisions allowing the IRS to rely on the documents submitted by the taxpayer. See, e.g., Eschweiler, 946 F.2d at 49; see also Greenstein v. Comm’r, 60 T.C.M. (CCH) 379, 382 (1990) (holding that forms submitted by third parties “[did] not provide sufficient notification of an address change”). Indeed, because notice sent to a temporary or unverified address may be ineffective, “the IRS would run a risk in relying on address information about a taxpayer submitted by a third party.” Gille v. United States, 33 F.3d 46, 48 (10th Cir. 1994). If the deficiency notice is invalid, the IRS’s tax assessment is generally unenforceable. See I.R.C. § 6213(a). And if the normally applicable three-year statute of limitations has expired, see id. § 6501(a), the IRS may be unable to collect the taxes at all. Neither party here contends that § 301.6212-2 exceeds the Treasury Secretary’s authority to “prescribe all needful rules and regulations for the enforcement of [the Code],” I.R.C. 18 No. 13-3363 § 7805(a), or that it is otherwise invalid. So for purposes of this decision we accept the regulation as controlling under Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 843-45 (1984). See Stoops v. One Call Commc’ns, Inc., 141 F.3d 309, 311 (7th Cir. 1998) (accepting regulations as controlling where neither party challenged their propriety). In other words, we look to § 301.6212-2 for the governing definition of “last known address.” Cf. Planes v. United States, No. 8:05-CV-1242, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72407, at  (M.D. Fla. Oct. 4, 2006) (following Treas. Reg. § 301.6212-2), aff’d per curiam, 239 F. App’x 480 (11th Cir. 2007); Lewis v. Comm’r, 98 T.C.M. (CCH) 174, 176 (2009) (same). Because our pre-2001 judicial definition of “last known address” is consistent with § 301.6212-2, however, we also continue to follow our earlier cases. 7 7 There are two exceptions. First, we follow § 301.6212-2(a)’s presumption that the last known address is the one listed on the taxpayer’s most recently filed return; whereas our earlier decisions presumed it was the address on the return being audited, see Eschweiler, 946 F.2d at 48, though subsequent returns were also relevant, see id. at 48 n.5 (citing McPartlin, 653 F.2d at 1190). Second, we treat a new address in the NCOA database as sufficient to update the last known address under § 301.6212-2(b)(2), even though none of our prior cases established such a rule. See Nat’l Cable & Telecomm. Ass’n v. Brand X Internet Servs., 545 U.S. 967, 982 (2005) (“A court’s prior judicial construction of a statute trumps an agency construction otherwise entitled to Chevron deference only if the prior court decision holds that its construction follows from the unambiguous terms of the statute and thus leaves no room for agency discretion.”). No. 13-3363 19