More times than I care to disclose we have to send notices of whatevers.........and we send by certified mail............and a few of those letters go undelivered..........so the problem does exist.

A few of the things we do.........

If we suspect that the addressee will ignore the certified mail...............we have a third party (usually an employee here) initial the document, stuff it, then mail it, and sign a memo (an affidavit)  that they signed, stuffed, and mailed.  That, coupled with retaining the returned certified letter unopened, clinches the requirements for "notice".

If we are merely concerned that the document might get lost in the shuffle after delivery..........we send the item certified, with the certified number on the document itself, so that later the addressee (usually the IRS) cannot later say that the document so identified was not the one timely delivered by the certified mail envelope...........we have all the certified slips, and they have a document with a certifed number on it--------pretty hard for them to deny timely delivery.

I have also all too many times faxed a copy of the document to the addressee indicating that it is coming by certified mail............that combined with the actual mailing pretty much prohibits anyone wiggling out of "being notified"..............at least from the Court's perspective.

One procedure that was suggested to me one time----------and I would NEVER, EVER suggest that anyone do this, since it is probably outright fraud------------ is that at year end, friendly parties (but not "related parties"), send empty certified mail envelopes to the other...................to document the timely release of a check in order to crowd that check into current year expenses, but to also document that the receiving party did not get it until the next tax year............and then work out the amount of the check before a logical deposit date in the next year.        AGAIN, that is NOT LEGAL!!

It does, however, point out the use of certified mail to document timing.

We nearly always suggest that certified mail be used by payors in making large payments close to yearend.........just to avoid potential hassles.  We ALWAYS suggest using certified mail when the paying party needs deduction "this year", but receiving party does not want it until next year.  Even though the payor has to send a 1099, the recipient properly excludes the payment from his "this year" income.