Taxpayers who receive an IRS notice of deficiency have 90 days to ask the U.S. Tax Court to review the proposed tax bill, and the court charges $60 to file. The deadline stretches to 150 days when the notice is addressed to a person outside the United States. The Tax Court says it cannot extend the period, and the IRS says the court cannot consider a petition filed late.
A notice of deficiency is the IRS’s formal statement that it plans to assess more tax than the taxpayer reported. Taxpayers who do nothing get a bill: the IRS says that if it does not hear back and no petition is filed, it will “assess the proposed changes and send you a bill.” A $60 filing fee is small against most proposed adjustments.
The question for anyone holding one of these notices is what date is printed on it and how many days are left. Gathering records and waiting for a tax preparer’s appointment both take time, and the clock keeps running. The court will not add days for any of them, so the date on the notice is the one that matters.
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What the 90 days protects
Under section 6213(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, the IRS generally cannot assess a deficiency or begin collection until the notice has been mailed and the 90 or 150 days have passed. If a petition is filed, the bar lasts until the Tax Court’s decision becomes final. A timely petition therefore freezes collection while the court looks at the case.
The statute also protects taxpayers who rely on the date printed on the notice. A petition filed on or before the last date the IRS specified in the notice is treated as timely. The IRS’s own notice explainer tells recipients to “file your petition by the date listed on the notice.”
Petitioning is not the only response. The IRS notice includes Form 5564, the Notice of Deficiency Waiver, for taxpayers who agree with the proposed changes and reply to the IRS. Taxpayers who disagree can respond to the IRS using the telephone number on the notice, and the court petition remains available until the printed date.
Counting the days without losing one
The Tax Court’s petitioner page says the mailing date is usually stamped on the notice, and the petition “must be filed by the 90th day.” A notice mailed Nov. 5, 2026, would run 90 days to Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2027. The date printed on the notice controls over any count a taxpayer makes.
When the last day lands on a Saturday, Sunday or D.C. legal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. A notice mailed Nov. 30, 2026, would reach day 90 on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2027, so the petition would be due Monday, March 1. That rule helps only when the last day falls on a weekend or holiday, and it never adds days to an ordinary deadline.
Electronic filers have until the final minute of the last day. The court says an e-filed petition must be received no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the last date to file. A taxpayer in California gets until 8:59 p.m. local time, and the Eastern clock applies to everyone.
Filing the petition and paying the $60
The Tax Court takes petitions through DAWSON, its online filing system. A filer creates an account, starts a case and follows the prompts, using the court’s Form 2 or a petition of the filer’s own. DAWSON does not save a partly finished filing, so the documents should be ready first, and the court warns to file once and not both electronically and by mail.
Paper petitions go to the court at 400 Second Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20217-0002. Hand delivery is accepted from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern. Certified or registered mail with a postmarked receipt, or a designated private delivery service, gives stronger proof of timely mailing, while a private postage meter stamp does not prove it.
The $60 fee is payable to “Clerk, United States Tax Court” by check, money order or through Pay.gov. Taxpayers who cannot pay can file an Application for Waiver of Filing Fee, signed under penalty of perjury. The fee is the same whether the proposed deficiency is $500 or $50,000.
The petition also asks whether the case should be handled as a small tax case. That choice is made on Line 4 of the petition, and the court files the case as a regular case when no choice is made. The court says it will generally agree to a small case request if the taxpayer qualifies.
Collection disputes follow a separate clock. For a notice of determination in a collection case, the petition is due within 30 days of the notice’s mailing date, per the court’s page. A taxpayer holding any IRS letter should check which notice it is before relying on the 90-day figure.
The 150-day period applies only when the notice is addressed to a person outside the United States, which matters to retirees who live abroad. For everyone else the answer is 90 days. Missing the date is the one mistake in this process that cannot be repaired, because the court cannot hear a late petition.
Holding an IRS notice with a date on it?
A notice of deficiency can sit in a mailbox while the 90 days run. Once the printed date passes, the Tax Court cannot take the case and the IRS can assess the tax and send the bill. Recognizing which notice has arrived is the first step.
The IRS Refund Recovery Kit includes a notice decoder that explains what IRS letters mean, and a refund status tracker spreadsheet for keeping dates and notice numbers in one place. It is a guide for reading letters and tracking dates, not a filing service, and it is not a substitute for the court’s own instructions.
Get the IRS notice decoder and the refund status tracker →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
