Discussion:USPS Return Receipt (Green Card) Not Returned
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Discussion Forum Index --> Tax Questions --> USPS Return Receipt (Green Card) Not Returned
| 12 June 2008 | |
| I spend $5.32 to mail an IRS form by Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested, to the Atlanta IRS ctr. The tracking notice on the USPS website shows delivery; but this is not the best evidence. The best evidence is the signed Green Card, which I paid $2.20 out of the $5.32. I paid for it, it's been more than a week since the website said it was delivered, and I want that rascal back. By the way, I live in Atlanta, so distance should not be a factor.
This may seem a minor matter, if you can consider spending more than five dollars to mail letter minor. BUT, with it going to Atlanta, I care about it. What I'm concerned about is someone at IRS Atlanta saying "Oh, we don't have time to sign for all those letters", and the USPS guy goes along with it, and just enters it into the database without actually getting it signed for. Anyone run into this, or do you think I just had a lost green card here? P.S. and I owe an apology to Natalie as I made the remark several months ago that there was no need to use Certified. Boy, I'm learning my lesson, but I can't even get my proof of delivery back. | |
| June 12, 2008 | |
| JD, See you & raise you, altho mine isn't an IRS issue.
Mailed, certified, client's tax return with original docs in it late March. My post office says it was scanned & left town. Client's post office says 'we never got it'. 2.5 months later and no one is willing to take any responsibility for the situation, and the return is still MIA. Fortunately, the client is cool about the situation BUT, makes me wonder what good is sending anything certified? If this were a critical mailing to, say, US Tax Court in response to a 90-day letter, where would I be? Is proof of 'something' sent adequate? I wouldn't want to have to rely on it. Do we now have to resort to FedX, etc? Client's post office comment "It's an apartment complex" and "Well, things do get lost". | |
| 12 June 2008 | |
| I use Certified Mail all the time to mail 1023's and penalty abatement letters to the IRS. Sometimes it takes a month or more to get the "Green Card" back from the IRS. Just be patient.
I go a step further than just requesting a return receipt. After all, the return receipt only proves that the IRS received "something" from you. It doesn't prove "what" they received. I always include along with the documents two copies of a transmittal letter to the IRS that names the documents/forms enclosed and says, in part: "To acknowledge receipt of the above named documents/forms/checks, please stamp the copy of this letter 'received' and return it to me in the stamped, self-addressed envelope provided." At the bottom of the transmittal letter I include the certified mail receipt number that is on the postal receipt and on the "green card" return receipt. That ties all the documents together and adds an additional layer of protection. It's a pain, but I charge for the additional time it takes to do this procedure and include it as a line item on my invoice to the client. Usually $25 to $50 for "certified mailing procedures". | |
| 12 June 2008 | |
| There is a cost saving alternative: Don't request a return receipt at all. IRS does not request a return receipt when it mails its fourth collection notice. Why should you? You can reasonably presume that if your certified mail has not been returned, then it has been delivered and that proof is available. If you have to prove it, you can get proof of delivery from to post office at a cost of that is about five times what return receipt costs. Unless you have to have proof of delivery in your sweaty hands for everything you mail, paying an outrageous fee once in a while is, over the long haul, a cheap alternative. Proof of mailing should be adequate if something to Tax Court goes astray and probably is the most important part of the process. If they didn't get it, they didn't get it, even if you mailed it on time. | |
Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said: | 12 June 2008 |
| I agree with David, it can take time. Have you picked up a Certified piece of mail lately.....you sign a computer screen while they log it in.....not sure what happens to the green thingee but I have not signed one in some time [our mail in Ocean Gate is not delivered, we troop to the post office and pick it up].
btw, I have not used Big Brown since the day in 1998 when they delivered a package, correctly addressed to something like 10001 Brookfield Station in a certain city in GA, to 11001 Brookfield. Tax return with mucho bucks owed.....we tracked it down and UPS would not retrieve it....client went there to find locked building....it was finally delivered in late May. We faxed client an extension....but have never used Brown since. | |
| June 13, 2008 | |
| Crow, I don't remember the situation regarding certified mail. Anyway, I just recently signed for a piece of certified mail. It was on the green card, and it was from the IRS. I would say a week is not that long, even though you are in the same city. | |
| 13 June 2008 | |
| When you do return receipt requested, there’s a cheaper and easier way to do it now.
The green card costs $2.20, as Crow said, and requires you to fill out and attach the card and then wait (and wait, and wait – I agree with the others that it’s probably just still on the way). But you can also just ask at the counter for “online return receipt,” which costs about $1 less, and you don’t have to fill anything out at the PO. The receipt shows it was purchased, and gives you the URL to go to online. You go there the next day and put in an e-mail address and a code that’s on the receipt, and they’ll e-mail you the signature image as soon as it’s available. I’ve found those arrive really quickly relative to the greenies. | |
| 13 June 2008 | |
| I agree that those green cards take forever. Also, the adhesive supplied by the USPS is not the best so I always tape over them. Also, the mail delivery process may miss the presence of the green card on the back of an envelope so it is best to apply it to the FRONT, using a larger envelope if necessary. | |
| 13 June 2008 | |
| I'm just curious, but, how is this a tax issue of any kind? taxea | |
| 14 June 2008 | |
| "And why do people want us to get up? And, why do people want us to go to bed after a day with no glory." Neruda
I don't know, but can't we preserve a little of our glory, and of our wider scope, to preserve my one and only hope...... of getting that damn green card. Thanks all. | |
Michaelstar (talk|edits) said: | 14 June 2008 |
| Taxea - have you never had to prove that a t/r has been mailed/filed? It becomes a tax issue once one needs to step through that door on behalf of a client. Not everbody files every return electronically. I have saved clients over the years literally thousands of dollars in filing penalties with those white receipts and green cards. More times than s/b necessary but in 25+ years - yes - thousands.
Crow - it will come but there are times, they do not. On more than one occasion I have received a green card stuck to one of mine that should have been delivered to someone else in another state. I have always just sent it on it's way - but to assume that everyone would do that - well one might hope. I have been lucky (so far) when I do not have a green card to match with a white receipt. | |
Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said: | 14 June 2008 |
| Deal with the City of Philadelphia Revenue Department when they send out non-filing notices. I always send the copy of the return [properly signed] Certified, but then a second notice comes out.....I send another copy with the copy of the green card......then the client is served with a Code Enforcement Complaint because no return was filed.....and there is $74 in Court Costs even when the return is filed. So I call and am told there is no return on file.....'so why did Horace Grant sign the certified mail receipt, Ma'am?' There is a second silence, a request to hold the line, and then within a minute they have magically found the return, probably in a pile of returns not processed. 'Oh, yea, it is here.....I will cancel the Complaint.'
I'd call that a taxing matter | |
| 14 June 2008 | |
| Your local post office may have a computer copy of the green card. If not you can put a trace on it. | |
