The Common Law Mailbox Rule provides that when you mail a letter to someone at their correct address and affix proper postage, the law says that they received it. The burden of proof is upon the recipient to prove that they did not, which is almost impossible.
In other words, when you sent the letter, they received it. Therefore, you do not need to send registered or certified mail. On the Patriot Network website under Earnest Letter Writing, you will see Dr. Clarkson’s famous Certificate of Mailing, here. This is optional, but it does have its uses.
1. Clarkson’s Certificate of Mailing is a private, non-official certificate that you or your friend can sign to prove as a matter of fact that the letter and the contents was mailed to the listed person on noted date. The Post Office registered/certified proof of mailing only states that an envelope was sent that day. Dr. Clarkson’s certificate, however, proves that the contents were sent.
The sender must send properly [i.e. correct address and correct amount of postage] and be able to swear on that if a dispute arises. Likewise, to effect service of process, the process server must OFFER the pleading -- whether the recipient receives it or not is totally immaterial. The OFFER constitutes delivery, not the actual receipt of said pleading.
2. When dealing with courts and all government agencies, in particular the IRS, proof of delivery is frequently disputed. Also, the Due Process Clause, guaranteed twice in the Bill of Rights, provides that the government must provide notice and that you must request your rights within a narrow and merciless time period, without any leeway or tolerance. You must file timely to enjoy the protections that our forefathers fought for.
Therefore, freedom fighters generally send letters to the IRS by expensive registered/certified/green card proof of mailing, which also requires a long wait in a government monopoly post office line. However, Dr. Clarkson’s certificate of mailing works just as well.
3. Dealing with the IRS is a problem for everybody, especially since this government monopoly is very inefficient, and loses vast amounts of incoming mail. The civil servants in the mailroom simply do not care, frequently discard vital letters, checks, required responses, and other important documents entrusted to their care. Therefore, dispute over mailing is a frequent problem.
Therefore Congress passed IRC 7502. This provides an exception to the Common Law Mailbox Rule, particular to the IRS. Therefore, if you deal with the IRS, you need to have proof that you actually mailed the letter.
You can do this by the expensive Post Office proofs, or by Clarkson’s proof which is more reliable than the government one, and therefore superior. This is explained in more detail in the famous case, Sorrentino vs IRS. This can be found here on the website. This case states: “… the district court applied the common law mailbox rule, which provides proof of mailing of a properly addressed communication bearing proper postage creates a rebuttable presumption the communication was received.”
4. You can also use Clarkson’s favorite tactic, which is multiple submissions.
When writing important letters to any government agency, you must keep in mind that inefficiency, carelessness and ineptitude rule. Losing important documents in the mail is a frequent occurrence. Therefore you stand a better chance for receipt of your vital filings if you send several copies of the same document to several different IRS addresses. Making multiple submissions is easy and economical for you, but causes much bureaucratic frustration by clogging up the machine.
This does not work for Tax Court or other court pleadings, but works just fine for administrative agencies. Go through your many letters from the IRS and pick out four or five addresses to send extra copies of your important documents.
5. In conclusion, Dr. Clarkson, with his three decades-plus experience, has developed a legal, safe system for you to satisfy the rules but also do so cheaply and efficiently. The Patriot Network Certificate of Mailing works.