For decades, taxpayers have relied on a simple rule when mailing returns or payments to the IRS: if it’s postmarked by the deadline, it’s considered filed on time.
It used to be that you could drop off your tax return at the post office on April 15 and you were safe. That’s no longer true thanks to new U.S. Postal Service (USPS) postmark practices.
And you can now thank the USPS for a new tax trap.
Under updated USPS regulations and operational changes, mail deposited at a local post office is often not postmarked the day you hand it over. Instead, postmarks are typically applied later at distant processing centers—sometimes a day or more after mailing.
That delay can mean the difference between “timely filed” and “late,” even when you did everything right. The result? Unexpected IRS penalties, interest, and a fight you never anticipated.
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