Mailing tax return near April 15 deadline comes with risk

If you are planning to mail in your 2025 tax returns this yr, one element could make the distinction between submitting on time and lacking the deadline: a postmark.

While April 15 is when federal (and most state) taxes are due, the IRS considers any tax return postmarked on or earlier than that date as being filed on time, even when it is not acquired by the company till days later. A postmark exhibits the date your mail was processed and traditionally had been utilized the identical day you mailed an merchandise.

However, on account of ongoing operational adjustments on the U.S. Postal Service, the day you mail an merchandise is probably not when a postmark is utilized. 

“The core issue is that taxpayers assume the day they drop a return in the mailbox is the day it gets postmarked,” mentioned Joshua Youngblood, founding father of The Youngblood Group in Dallas and an IRS enrolled agent. “That has never been guaranteed, but it matters more now than ever.”

As the Postal Service continues a multiyear overhaul of its operations to shore up its funds and modernize its infrastructure, the company expects a rise in delays between once you mail one thing and when it receives a postmark, in line with a published rule in the Federal Register that took impact Dec. 24.

Due to diminished pickups at many postal places and elevated journey occasions for mail to succeed in regional processing facilities the place postmarks are utilized, “the postmark date does not inherently or necessarily align with the date on which the Postal Service first accepted possession of the mailpiece,” the rule reads.

Although the Postal Service mentioned within the discover that it’s not modifying how mail is postmarked — that has all the time been achieved at its processing services — the company added language to its Domestic Mail Manual to make clear the problem.

Part of the issue is that adjustments to transportation schedules and the consolidation of processing services imply many put up places of work that beforehand despatched mail twice a day to a hub now accomplish that solely as soon as within the morning, in line with research from the Brookings Institution revealed in December. Additionally, about 26% of put up places of work are inside 50 miles of their regional heart, and one other 26% are between 150 and 500 miles away, in line with the analysis.

The upshot is that some mail typically would not start transferring via the system till at the least the subsequent day, during which case the postmark will not replicate the date you mailed the merchandise. In some circumstances — i.e., forward of weekends or holidays — it may take longer for it to be utilized.

“To ensure that your tax return receives a postmark on the day you mail it, ask a retail associate at a post office retail counter to hand-cancel it for free,” the Postal Service advises on its website.

Although households more and more use digital choices to file taxes, pay payments and deal with different private enterprise, there are nonetheless individuals who use the Postal Service for time-sensitive mail, together with tax returns.

So far in 2026, via March 27, the IRS had received 88.4 million tax returns. Of these, 1.6 million weren’t filed electronically. In 2025, of the 165.8 million tax returns acquired by the IRS, about 10.9 million were not e-filed, in line with the company.

For particular person tax returns — i.e., your Form 1040 — the penalty for submitting a late return is 5% of the tax due for every month or partial month the return is late, capping out at 25%. On high of that, the penalty for paying late is 0.5% of your unpaid stability per thirty days, additionally capped at 25%. Interest can be charged on unpaid balances, accruing each day on the federal short-term price plus 3%.

However, in case you have filed and paid taxes owed on time over the earlier three years, you possibly can request that the penalties be waived, Youngblood mentioned.

If you propose to mail your tax return, do not depend on metered postage or self-service kiosk labels, he mentioned.

“Those show when the postage was printed, not when [the Postal Service] took possession,” Youngblood mentioned.

While it is free to ask a postal clerk to manually postmark your tax return, Youngblood mentioned, you can also think about using licensed mail, which costs $5.30.

“This gives you both proof of mailing and a reliable date stamp,” he mentioned. “It is the gold standard for anyone mailing something deadline-sensitive to the IRS.”

Alternatively, a certificate of mailing, which you retain on your information, prices $2.40 and exhibits the date you mailed one thing. There are also personal supply providers obtainable that the IRS will accept correspondence from, Youngblood mentioned.