With the deadline for filing income tax returns rapidly approaching, the U.S. Postal Service is bracing for the annual onslaught of last-minute filers. Tax Day, or the last day to file 2010 federal tax forms without requesting an extension, is Monday, April 18.

Postal customers are encouraged to mail returns or extension requests early in the day at any Post Office, station or branch or collection box in the Sioux Falls area. Tax filers should double-check the pickup schedule if they choose to use a street side collection box to ensure that their documents will be collected and postmarked before the deadline. Filers should also ensure that they have properly weighed and posted their returns.

To aid last-minute filers, mail will be collected until midnight, April 18 from the outside collection boxes at:

Sioux Falls Mail Processing & Distribution Center
4801 N 4th Ave.

TAX DAY MAILING TIPS

• Apply proper postage and stamps, especially with extra forms/schedules. It costs 44 cents for the first ounce. Before April 17, add 17 cents for each additional ounce. On April 17, the price for additional cents rises to 20 cents. One ounce is about four pages, but since paper weights vary, it’s always best to check or play it safe and add a stamp.
• If you use a larger envelope, First Class postage is 88 cents for the first ounce.
• Double check the last collection time before depositing a tax return in a blue collection box on April 18 to ensure that your return is postmarked before the deadline.
• If you use a non-IRS labeled envelope, make sure you print the proper IRS address.
• Print your return address in the upper-left-hand corner of your tax mail envelope.
• Customers with tax questions can contact the IRS at 1-800-829-1040; or www.irs.gov

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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 for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.