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Using one of several major private delivery services to
deliver your return, tax payment, etc. to IRS qualifies for
the “timely mailing equals timely filing” rule
that otherwise applies only to delivery by the U.S. Postal
Service. Under the timely mailing rule, if the U.S. Postal
Service is used, you are considered to have filed a return,
made a payment, etc. on the day that the relevant envelope
is postmarked by the Post Office. If a qualifying private
delivery service is used, the day the envelope is recorded
or marked by the qualifying delivery service is treated as
a U.S. mail postmark date for purposes of the timely mailing
rule. On the other hand, if, on the due date of the return,
you give the envelope to a delivery service that doesn't
qualify for the timely mailing rule and they make delivery
to IRS on the day after the due date, the Service could penalize
you for late filing. Since many lateness penalties apply
on a percentage basis for every month or part of a month
the return is late, even a single day of lateness could result
in a full month's penalty.
 Example. Tom submits his income tax return for
filing on April 15th by giving it to a delivery service for
overnight delivery. The return includes a payment of $2,000
in taxes owed. If the delivery service doesn't qualify for
the “timely mailing equals timely filing” rule,
Tom could be treated as filing late. The late filing penalty
of 5% per month (or part of a month) could cost him $100
(5% of the $2,000 in taxes owed). But if, for example, Tom
uses a qualifying Federal Express delivery service, labeling
of the return by a Federal Express employee by midnight of
April 15th constitutes filing the return, so the return is
timely filed and Tom isn't liable for a penalty.
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The “timely mailing equals timely filing” rule
applies to designated private delivery services. So far,
IRS has designated only certain carriers and only certain
services that are offered by those carriers. Additional detail
is available on the IRS website.
In general, the date treated as the postmark date for an
item given to the carrier is the date the delivery service's
data base shows it received the item. You should get a written
confirmation of this date from the delivery service in case
you have to prove the date to IRS. For example, the date
treated as the postmark date for an item given to FedEx is
the date shown on the label that was generated and affixed
by a FedEx employee. Different rules apply if you generate
the FedEx label yourself.
The “timely filing equals timely mailing” rule
will usually apply only if an item is actually delivered to
IRS. At the moment, the best way to protect yourself against
an IRS claim that it didn't receive a document is to send it
by registered or certified mail. If you use certified mail
be sure to get a postmarked sender's receipt. If you use registered
mail, the registration date is the postmark date. The same
law which authorized the application of the “timely mailing
equals timely filing” rule to private delivery services
also authorized IRS to designate some private delivery services
as equivalent to registered or certified mail, but IRS has
so far declined to make any such designations.
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