Opinion of the Court notice is mailed (not counting Sunday as the sixtieth day), the taxpayer may file a petition with the Board of Tax Appeals for a redetermination of the deficiency. Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (d) or (f) of this section or in section 279, 282, or 1001, no assessment of a deficiency in respect of the tax imposed by this title and no distraint or proceeding in court for its collection shall be made, begun, or prosecuted until such notice has been mailed to the taxpayer, nor until the expiration of such 60-day period, nor, if a petition has been filed with the Board, until the decision of the Board has become final. Notwithstanding the provision of section 3224 of the Revised Statutes the making of such assessment or the beginning of such proceeding or distraint during the time such prohibition is in force may be enjoined by a proceeding in the proper court. * * * (d) The taxpayer shall at any time have the right, by a signed notice in writing filed with the Commissioner, to waive the restrictions provided in subdivision (a) of this section on the assessment and collection of the whole or any part of the deficiency. (44 Stat. 9, 55, 56.) In making his determinations for 1918 and 1920 the Commissioner also considered, audited, and determined the tax liability for 1919 and determined an overassessment of $64,423.90 for that year, notice of which was also included in the above-mentioned notice mailed to plaintiff on April 13, 1926. No appeal was allowed to the Board with respect to the determination of the overassessment and no further proceedings were to be had in the Bureau of Internal Revenue with reference to such overassessment, except the scheduling and the allowance thereof by the Commissioner. By reason of the overassessment having been determined, and for the purpose of carrying out the customary procedure with reference to entering overassessments on a schedule of overassessments and credits as set forth in Finding 10, the Commissioner on May 22, 1926, before the expiration of the 60-day period allowed the plaintiff by section 274 (a), supra, within which it might appeal to the Board of Tax Appeals, assessed the additional taxes for 1918 and 1920, together with interest on the 1918 deficiency to the date of assessment. This was not a jeopardy assessment under Section 279. When sending this assess Opinion of the Court ment to the collector, the Commissioner instructed the latter to withhold demand pending comparison of the amounts assessed with the overassessment for 1919. Following the signing of the assessment list the Commissioner on May 28, 1926, signed a schedule of overassessments allowing the overassessment of $64,423.90 for 1919. This overassessment schedule contained fifty-seven separate items of overassessments with reference to various taxpayers, only one of which related to the tax liability of plaintiff. The schedule was received by the collector June 1, 1926, and on June 30, more than sixty days after the deficiency notice had been mailed to plaintiff by the Commissioner, the collector signed the overassessment schedule showing that the overassessment listed thereon was an overpayment and had, on that date, been applied against the additional tax of $192,117.57 determined and assessed for 1918. On the same day the collector signed a schedule of refunds and credits setting forth thereon appropriate entries made on his books with respect to the crediting of the overpayment for 1919 against 1918. This schedule of refunds and credits was returned to the Commissioner and was signed and approved by him on August 20, 1926. No petition was filed by plaintiff with the United States Board of Tax Appeals with respect to the deficiencies determined for 1918 and 1919. But the making of the premature assessment did not interfere in any way with plaintiff's right to file a petition with the board and prosecute its case to a final decision. No demand was made upon plaintiff by the collector for the payment of the deficiencies within the 60day period following the mailing of the deficiency notice, and the plaintiff did not, during such 60-day period, nor at any time thereafter, contest the assessment of May 22 as being invalid or void and no proceeding in court was instituted by plaintiff under section 274 (a) to enjoin the making of the assessment by the Commissioner or a collection thereon by the collector. The collector on July 7, 1926, sometime after the expiration of the 60-day period within which the taxpayer might have filed a petition with the Board of Tax Appeals but which it did not do, mailed to plaintiff a notice and demand' Opinion of the Court for the payment of the balance of the additional tax assessed for 1918 amounting to $127,693.67, together with interest of $2,742.28, to the date of the assessment and also notice and demand for the additional tax of $207,537.94 for 1920. Upon receipt of this notice and demand, the plaintiff on August 17, 1926, paid the tax assessed without specific objection to the assessment as being premature or void. This was about eight months before the expiration of the statutory period of limitation as extended within which the Commissioner was authorized and allowed to assess the deficiencies. The checks issued by plaintiff in payment of the deficiencies each contained a notation "Paid under protest." These checks were transmitted to the collector with a letter from plaintiff advising the collector that the tax was being paid under protest (Finding 8), but no mention was made with reference to the assessment having been prematurely made nor was there indicated any intention specifically to protest the then validity or legality of the assessment or payment. Had any such question been raised or objection made to the regularity or validity of the assessment and collection, the Commissioner could have reassessed the tax at any time within about eight months thereafter. On August 27, 1926, more than a month following the payment of the deficiencies for 1918 and 1920, the Commissioner delivered to plaintiff a certificate of overassessment showing that the overpayment of $64,423.90 for 1919 had been allowed and credited in part satisfaction of the deficiency assessed for 1918. No interest was paid upon this overpayment for the reason that the due date of the tax against which it was credited was prior to the date of overpayment. Plaintiff knew at the time it paid the deficiencies on July 17, 1926, that this credit had been made. Upon receipt of this certificate of overassessment, plaintiff made no protest or objection to the credit or to the assessment for 1918 against which it had been applied. The only question which we are called upon to consider and decide in this case is whether an assessment of a tax which is premature under the provisions of section 274 (a), Revenue Act of 1926, is void and collection thereon an illegal Opinion of the Court and void exaction. We do not consider or discuss when, or under what circumstances, an assessment and collection might otherwise be void and enjoined, notwithstanding the provisions of section 3224 of the Revised Statutes. Upon the facts presented by the record in this case, we are of opinion that the assessment and collection in question were not void and that plaintiff is not entitled to recover for the following reasons: (1) Plaintiff took no action to enjoin the making of the assessment of May 22, 1926. After the tax had been prematurely assessed, no steps were taken by plaintiff to enjoin action thereon by the collector. Plaintiff was in no wise prejudiced by the assessment and collection. (2) No action was taken by the collector to collect the deficiencies until after the expiration of the 60-day period following the mailing of the deficiency notice within which plaintiff might file a petition with the Board of Tax Appeals. No lien was placed upon any property of the plaintiff because of such assessment. No distraint proceeding was begun by the collector. (3) An assessment which is premature under the provisions of section 274 (a), Revenue Act of 1926, is not void. If it had been intended that such an assessment should be considered void, there would have been no occasion for Congress to enact the provision making an exception to section 3224 of the Revised Statutes so that a taxpayer might enjoin the making of a premature assessment or might enjoin its enforcement until the procedure outlined in the statute had been completed. (4) In substance the provisions of section 274 (a) of the Revenue Act of 1926 to the effect that no assessment and collection of the deficiency shall be made until a taxpayer has been given an opportunity to appeal to the Board and, if an appeal is taken, until the decision of the Board becomes final were not new. Similar provisions with reference to assessment and collection, after appeal, hearing, and final decision, were enacted in the Revenue Act of 1921 and subsequent acts. The injunctive remedy authorized by section 274 (a) was given to a taxpayer as a means of preventing (during the periods mentioned in section 274 (a)) that Opinion of the Court which had often occurred in the past under circumstances in which a taxpayer could not prevent the making of assessment or collection before final adjudication of its tax liability—namely, harassment through the levying of a lien upon the taxpayer's property, demands for payment, or distraint and sale of property to satisfy the assessment, or the giving of a bond. (5) The provisions of section 274 and other provisions of the Revenue Act of 1926 with reference to assessment and collection evidence a clear purpose to limit the taxpayer, if he desires to object to a premature assessment or collection, to the specific remedy provided in section 274 (a) if timely invoked, and are inconsistent with the theory that timely action by injunction may be waived and suit thereafter brought to recover the tax solely on the ground that it was prematurely assessed, paid, or collected. (6) The remedy by injunction provided by section 274 (a) of the Revenue Act of 1926, as an exception to the provisions of section 3224 of the Revised Statutes, becomes barred upon the expiration of sixty days after the mailing of the deficiency notice if no petition is filed with the Board and, if a petition is filed with the Board, a proceeding to enjoin collection of a deficiency becomes barred on the date the decision of the Board becomes final in a case in which either party may appeal to the Circuit Courts of Appeals. The injunctive remedy provided by section 274, being an exception to the general provisions of law contained in section 3224, R. S., against enjoining the assessment and collection of a tax, is, under the plain language which grants the remedy, only available to the taxpayer during the period of time specified in the statute for the carrying out of the procedure therein provided. (7) When, as in the case at bar, an assessment prematurely made is not questioned in the manner specified in section 274 (a) and payment is otherwise timely and legally demanded at a time when the Commissioner and the collector are free to act, such assessment and collection cannot be enjoined under the positive provisions of section 3224, R. S. Nor can a taxpayer, who has not appealed to the Board, recover the tax so paid or collected unless he sub |