The U.S. Tax Court jumped right back into the swing of things, post-shutdown, by announcing they would resume normal business hours. The Court took to the internet to remind its employees that they should “report to work on their next regular duty day beginning Thursday, October 17, 2013.”
But what to do about all of those pesky tax cases that were already scheduled?
Here’s the breakdown on how they’ll be handled (announcement downloads as a pdf):
- Any trial cases which were originally scheduled for the weeks of October 7 and 14, 2013, but were canceled because of the shutdown will be rescheduled. The Court will issue a notice to the affected parties about those revised dates.
- Any normal trial cases slated to begin next week, starting October 21, 2013, or later, will go to trial as normal. If, due to the shutdown, either of the parties headed to trial during the week of October 21, October 28 or November 4, were unable to prepare for trial or discuss any potential settlements, the Court asks that it be notified at the calendar call.
- Any special trials will be rescheduled (unless the Court says otherwise).
Certain filing deadlines that were not met due to the government shutdown have been extended.
But don’t get too excited: despite those revised deadlines, a judge may order that a due date be moved up sooner. The Court notes that it expects this would “occur only in rare circumstances.” Be sure and review any orders and Court notices carefully.
It’s also important to note that the Court does not have the authority to tinker with filing deadlines imposed in the Internal Revenue Code. As a result, those statutory deadlines remained in effect during the shutdown. If a taxpayer was not able to hand-deliver a petition to the Court because it was closed, mailing the petition was an alternative (remember that the post office still delivered mail during the shutdown). Postmarks are sufficient for purposes of meeting those deadlines even though the Tax Court did not timely process the mail.
Quite frankly, I would expect to see some pushback from the legal community on the finality of some of these deadlines – but for now, this is the official word. I’ll update you as I get more information.
