TUCSON —Postmaster Carl Grigel urges postal customers to avoid the crowds by mailing their income tax returns earlier than Thursday, April 15, or at least early on deadline day.

Customers are encouraged to check the collection times posted on each blue collection box to ensure pick up on April 15th.  Mail deposited after the last pick-up time will not receive the April 15th postmark.

Tucson’s Main Post Office at 1501 S. Cherrybell Stravenue will provide the city’s only location where tax returns may be mailed as late as midnight on Thursday, April 15 – however, there will be no drive-through service in the middle turn lane of Cherrybell Stravenue. Customers will have to enter the Post Office parking lot and are encouraged to take Kino Parkway to E. Silverlake Road to minimize traffic delays.

Tax returns must have proper postage affixed when mailed -- current postage for a standard First-Class envelope is 44 cents for the first ounce and 17 cents for each additional ounce.  Customers are encouraged to purchase stamps during regular business hours at many local retailers, contract postal units, or Post Offices — locations may be looked up online at usps.com/tax.

Full retail services will be available until the regular closing time of 8 p.m. at Tucson's Main Post Office on April 15th.

The lobby of Tucson’s Main Post Office also features a self-service Automated Postal Center, which allows customers to purchase stamps and mail letters and packages 24 hours a day, seven days a week, using a debit or credit card only.  Customers using the Automated Postal Center must still deposit their returns at the Main Post Office by midnight, April 15.

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 26th in the 2008 Fortune 500.