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MICHIGAN
When filing any tax return, petition, or other legal document, one should, of course, be aware of and understand the particular jurisdiction's filing rules and requirements. Most jurisdictions provide for some form of the "timely mailing as timely filing" rule (sometimes referred to as the "postmark rule" or "mailbox rule"), whereby if a document is not timely received, the date it was postmarked or "mailed" is deemed the date of filing. In these circumstances, one sometimes must determine what methods of delivery satisfy the particular jurisdiction's definition of "mailed."
The federal rules. Before 1996, IRC Section 7502 generally required taxpayers to use the U.S. Postal Service in order to apply the postmark rule. Under amendments effective 7/30/96, however, a private shipper classified as a "designated delivery service" is treated as the equivalent of the Post Office. Thus, for federal tax purposes, the date a return or other form is recorded or marked as received by a designated delivery service is treated as the date of filing, in the same manner as a postmark made by the U.S. Postal Service. A designated delivery service must meet certain criteria prescribed by the statute and Treasury regulations.
So far, DHL Express, Federal Express, and United Parcel Service have been named as designated delivery services, but only with respect to specified categories of their various types of deliveries (e.g., "overnight," "next day," etc.). The federal statute also authorizes Treasury to issue rules that would equate certain designated delivery services with certified mail. Whether any of these private services are valid for state tax purposes, however, is a question to be answered state by state.
Michigan's position. In W.A. Foote Memorial Hospital v. City of Jackson, Michigan, 262 Mich. App. 333, 686 N.W.2d 9 (2004), the Michigan Court of Appeals held that the term "certified mail," as used in a Michigan statute providing for the timely filing of a appeal with the state's Tax Tribunal, refers to a U.S. Postal Service classification for domestic mail, and thus the statutory authority for using "certified mail" did not apply to a petition sent via Federal Express.
In this case, local taxing authorities assessed taxes on the hospital's real and personal property for 2002. The hospital claimed that its property...