Pembroke Pines FL — If you’re planning to mail your income tax return at the last minute on Tax Day, you’ll appreciate that postal employees will be on hand to accept your stamped envelopes up until the stroke of midnight on Thursday, April 15. Drive-through parking lot collections will be set up at the following three South Florida mail processing plants:

Fort Lauderdale P&DC, 1900 West Oakland Park Blvd, Fort Lauderdale 33310

West Palm Beach P&DC, 3200 Summit Blvd, West Palm Beach 33416

Miami GMF, 2200 NW 72 Avenue, Miami 33152
Assignment Editor Note: (On-Camera interviews will be available at the Miami GMF beginning at Noon until 1:00PM on Thursday, April 15 )

While many South Florida Post Offices will be open for retail services after 5:00 pm, a number of postal facilities will observe regular hours on Tax Day, Thursday, April 15. Postal officials remind customers that mail deposited after the last collection time posted on collection boxes in their communities or at many Post Office locations (except those at the drive-through set ups), will not be postmarked until the following day. It’s important to verify the scheduled pick up times on the labels prior to depositing your mail.

South Florida Post Offices with retail operations after 5:00 pm include the following:

The Postal Service suggests the following tax mailing tips:

• Make sure you have proper postage, especially if you have extra forms or schedules. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will not accept tax filings without postage or with insufficient postage. The IRS returns all tax filings with insufficient postage to the sender, who is then charged with late-payment penalties. It costs 44-cents for a one ounce letter and 17-cents for each additional ounce. One ounce is about four pages.
• It is important to note that Automated Postal Centers (APC) postmarks are not valid when filing tax returns.
• Don’t use an office postage meter. The IRS doesn’t accept private postmarks as proof of timely filing.
• If you use a non-IRS labeled envelope, make sure you have the proper IRS address. Also, put your return address in the upper left-hand corner.
• Mail early in the day if you can, so you can save yourself a trip to the late collection locations and avoid traffic and the last-minute rush.
• If you are depositing a tax return in a blue post office collection box on April 15 be sure to mail it before the latest collection time posted on the box. Post Office and collection box location, hours, and pick-up time information is available at http://usps.whitepages.com/post_office.
• Use security of proof-of-mailing and proof-of-delivery of your tax returns — use certified mail service ($2.80) with a return receipt ($1.10 Electronic, $2.30 Mail), plus the applicable postage.

Please note, tax forms are no longer available at post offices. Check at local libraries or online at http://www.irs.gov/ (Federal forms) or http://www.tax.state.ny.us/forms/ (NYS forms).

For more information about post office hours and locations call 1 800 ASK-USPS or visit www.usps.com/ and click on Locate A Post Office.

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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 direct support from taxpayers. 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 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500.