SECTION 8. FAILURE TO COMPLY

A bank to which this revenue procedure applies that changes its method of accounting for bad debts without complying with all of the applicable provisions of this revenue procedure will be deemed to have initiated the change without obtaining the consent of the Commissioner as required by § 446(e) and will not have audit protection for prior years as provided in section 6. Accordingly, the district director may propose to change the bank’s reserve method in a prior year, and if the first year in which the bank improperly uses the requested method of accounting is no longer open for the assessment of a deficiency of tax, the Commissioner may use the Commissioner’s statutory discretion to change the bank’s method of accounting in a later year and impose an adjustment under § 481(a).

due date. (See § 7502(e) for special rules regarding the mailing of deposits.)

.03 Section 7502(c) and §§ 301.7502–1(c)(2) and (d)(1) of the Procedure and Administration Regulations provide the rules applicable to registered and certified mail. If a document or payment is sent by registered mail, the date of the registration is treated as the postmark date. If a document or payment is sent by certified mail, the date of the postmark on the sender’s receipt is treated as the postmark date. Proof of proper registration of a document, or that a postmark certified mail sender’s receipt was properly issued for a document, is prima facie evidence of delivery of that document. For payments sent by registered or certified mail, however, proof of proper registration of an item, or that a postmark certified mail sender’s receipt was properly issued for an item, is not prima facie evidence of delivery.

.04 Section 7502(d) provides exceptions to the general rule of § 7502. The special filing and payment rules of § 7502 do not apply to the following:

(1) documents filed in, or payments made to, any court other than the United States Tax Court;

(2) currency or other medium of payment unless actually received and accounted for; and

(3) documents or payments that are required to be delivered by any method other than by mailing.

.05 Section 1210 of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights 2, Pub. L. No. 104–168, 110 Stat. 1452, 1474–1475 (1996), amended § 7502 by adding subsection (f). Prior to the amendment, the ‘‘timely mailing as timely filing/paying’’ rule of § 7502(a) could not apply to documents and payments delivered other than by United States mail. Section 7502(f) authorizes the Service to expand the ‘‘timely mailing as timely filing/paying’’ rule to documents and payments delivered by certain PDSs. A PDS must be designated by the Service before it will qualify for the ‘‘timely mailing as timely filing/paying’’ rule. Section 7502(f) also grants the Service authority to accept the equivalent of registered or certified mail services from designated PDSs.

.06 In Announcement 96–108, 1996–44 I.R.B. 15, the Service invited comments, and provided notice of a public hearing, with respect to developing interim criteria for designating PDSs for purposes of the ‘‘timely mailing as timely filing/paying’’ rule of § 7502. A