Sending mail to IRS by which postal method or courier?

Just a tip if you are mailing a check to the IRS. Spell out "Internal Revenue Service" on the check instead of making it out to simply "IRS". There is a scam where people change the payee to "MRS (Insert my name)" turning the I into an M.

Commented Feb 21, 2014 at 22:32 Actually, the tax check is supposed to be made out to "U.S. Treasury." Commented Apr 6, 2016 at 10:39

3 Answers 3

If the document must be postmarked by a specific date or there are dire consequences then use a method of mailing that gives you that dated postmark receipt.

Your return is considered filed timely if the envelope is properly addressed and postmarked no later than April 15

DHL Express (DHL): DHL Same Day Service.
Federal Express (FedEx): FedEx Priority Overnight, FedEx Standard Overnight, FedEx 2Day, FedEx International Priority, and FedEx International First.
United Parcel Service (UPS): UPS Next Day Air, UPS Next Day Air Saver, UPS 2nd Day Air, UPS 2nd Day Air A.M., UPS Worldwide Express Plus, and UPS Worldwide Express.

What would be dire consequences?

Having to report a 83-b election within thirty days of the transaction. Failure to do so would impact your tax situation for years.
Owing a large sum of money and wanting to wait until the last day to send it in.

If there are no dire consequences for hitting a specific date then regular mail is fine. In some cases electronic submission is even better because of the electronic receipt.

If you are concerned about the check falling into the wrong hands you could also pay by credit card or debit card. But that also has risks and costs.

answered Feb 21, 2014 at 12:29 mhoran_psprep mhoran_psprep 143k 15 15 gold badges 197 197 silver badges 403 403 bronze badges

With April 15th so far away, OP can see his check clear well before he'd miss the due date. As you implied toward end. +1

Commented Feb 21, 2014 at 12:55 Thanks ! Is Certified mail a good option? Commented Feb 21, 2014 at 17:47

Actually certified is not needed, that gets the signature at the place it was delivered. You want a Certificate of mailing, which proves you mailed the letter. usps.com/ship/insurance-and-extra-services.htm?

Commented Feb 21, 2014 at 18:03

Probably Priority mail is a good option then?. I have an option to print out the label(using Click N ship of USPS) at home online and I don't even need to go to post office. BTW if I do this, and if 3 out of my 4 envelopes are going to same address, should I put all the envelope in one big flat rate Priority Mail envelope or should I send them separately in a separately Priority Mail Flat rate envelope which will cost more to me? Please advise. Thanks

Commented Feb 21, 2014 at 22:49 what is the deadline? Commented Feb 21, 2014 at 23:54

Thanks a lot for raising this question, and @mhoran_psprep thanks a ton for the answer too.

Struggled a bit to figure out the address that need to be used when we go for Non-USPS. In my case FedEx would not accept the below address:

Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Austin, Texas 73301-0215.

They ask for a physical street address instead. Here is the Austin address I ended up having to use to ship with FedEx:

Internal Revenue Submission Processing Center, 3651 South Interregional Highway 35, Austin, TX 78741. Phone 1-800-829-1040

I had called the Customer Care and stayed on call for a while to figure it out; I hope my answer might help some one else.

Here's a link to the IRS' own list of addresses for processing centers, containing addresses for centers beyond Austin.