With Tax Day fast approaching it’s time to look into the Bozo method of courting disaster. And it doesn’t, on the surface, seem to be a Bozo method. After all, this organization has the motto, Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night can stay these messengers about their duty.
Well, that’s not really the Postal Service’s motto. It’s just the inscription on the General Post Office in New York (at 8th Avenue and 33rd Street).
So assume you have a lengthy, difficult return. You’ve paid a professional good money to get it done. You go to the Post Office, put proper postage on it, dump it in the slot (before April 15th), and you’ve just committed a Bozo act.
If you use the Postal Service to mail your tax returns, spend the extra money for certified mail. For $2.70 you can purchase certified mail. Yes, you will have to stand in a line (or you can use the automated machines in many post offices), but you now have a receipt that verifies that you have mailed your return.
About three years ago a client saved $2.42 (I think that was the cost of a certified mail piece then) and sent his return in with a $0.37 stamp. It never made it. He ended up paying nearly $1000…but he did save $2.42.
Don’t be a Bozo. Efile (and you don’t have to worry at all about the Post Office), or spend the $2.70! And you can go all out and get a return receipt, too (though you can now track certified mail online). There’s a reason every client letter notes, “using certified mail.”
A warning for those who save the money and do not use return receipt service. The postal service only keeps the computerized (online) records up for two years. So you must print that record of delivery off the postal service’s website. Or you can spend an additional $2.20 for a return receipt postcard or $1.00 for an electronic return receipt. Paper counts, so make sure you get a receipt of some sort.