USPS May Have Lost My Return. How do I proceed?

[anonymousCA]

Been almost a month for me now and still no record that I filed a 2019 return.

[Julietklein1]

I ended up mailing my returns because there was some sort of vague issue with efile. I got a letter from the post office today saying "Sorry this is all we could find of the contents of your letter that was damaged in transit" It was a single W2 nothing else. CAN I NOW TRY TO EFILE JUST FEDERAL? DO I HAVE TO AMMEND RETURN?

[klr]

Have read similar inquiries and responses.  If I accept that my mailed return has been lost since 3/4/2020 within USPS and can't be found- IRS has no records regarding my 2019 return to date.  May I now e-file via TurboTax? If so, what do I do about lost original docs regarding income/deductions filed with paper return?  thanks much:-)

[fraswim]

I mailed my return to Austin, TX   on March 9, 2020 and it says it is still in transit?  Should I mail another copy?  Thank you.

[JotikaT2]

No.

You may want to contact your postal office to see if they have any way of tracking your original return down.  There may have been delays in signing off on the receipt of the return as the IRS is operating under limited operations and are not processing paper returns at the moment.

Attached is a link with more information as to what IRS departments are available to contact at the moment.

IRS operations

[mroser]

I have the same issue. The following statement is on the IRS website. Hopefully nothing actually got lost and the IRS office is just not processing them yet. 

Paper Tax Returns: All taxpayers should file electronically through their tax preparer, tax software provider or IRS Free File if possible. The IRS is not currently able to process individual paper tax returns. If you already have filed via paper but it has not yet been processed, do not file a second tax return or write to the IRS to inquire about the status of your return or your Economic Impact Payment. Paper returns will be processed   once processing centers are able to reopen. This year, more than 90% of taxpayers have filed electronically.

[anonymousCA]

Final update from me  - I checked today (been checking every several days for like the last 3 months) and my return finally shows up now when I click where's my refund... at least it didn't get lost. 

[shawn52]

Honestly after researching on google for significant amount of time... people should really just use certified mail or registered mail when using USPS. You may probably have to do this over the counter in a USPS office, in order to get the certificate or hand cancellation that proves the addressee info, recipient address and mailing date.

The certificate / hand cancellation is the key. No matter USPS actually successfully delivers it or not, no matter the tracking information page is updated or get stuck in "in transit to next facility", etc, doesn't matter. If IRS eventually doesn't receive your tax return, just show them your mailing certificate / hand cancellation and you'll have no responsibility over any late filing, that's it.

One gotcha is adding certified mail is WAY more important than using USPS Express or Priority mail to expedite the delivery. In the worst case, you filed by USPS Express and you get the "Proof of Delivery" PDF file provided by USPS, but somehow IRS says they didn't receive it. You're in trouble as well, since Proof of Delivery, or any tracking history, is not an officially admitted proof for timely mailing. Even worst is neither the tracking history nor the Proof of Delivery contains recipient full address, only state / city / zip code. So you can't even prove you mail to the right address to IRS. Yet you spent lots of money for Express.

So I'd suggest just go for certified mail, doesn't matter if you're mailing as 1st class mail or other "faster" delivery options. Due to the "Timely mailing as timely filing" rule by IRS, you're all set. Of course, private delivery service (PDS) like Fedex, UPS, etc is a different story, you can use recipient for proof in that case, or request the staff to give you a written proof of mailing date. But you'll have to figure out the PDS address of your state IRS Treasury, they can't use PO Box or address w/o street name.

[shawn52]

Honestly after researching on google for significant amount of time... people should really just use certified mail or registered mail when using USPS. You may probably have to do this over the counter in a USPS office, in order to get the certificate or hand cancellation that proves the addressee info, recipient address and mailing date.

The certificate / hand cancellation is the key. No matter USPS actually successfully delivers it or not, no matter the tracking information page is updated or get stuck in "in transit to next facility", etc, doesn't matter. If IRS eventually doesn't receive your tax return, just show them your mailing certificate / hand cancellation and you'll have no responsibility over any late filing, that's it.
One gotcha is adding certified mail is WAY more important than using USPS Express or Priority mail to expedite the delivery. In the worst case, you filed by USPS Express and you get the "Proof of Delivery" PDF file provided by USPS, but somehow IRS says they didn't receive it. You're in trouble as well, since Proof of Delivery, or any tracking history, is not an officially admitted proof for timely mailing. Even worst is neither the tracking history nor the Proof of Delivery contains recipient full address, only state / city / zip code. So you can't even prove you mail to the right address to IRS. Yet you spent lots of money for Express.

So I'd suggest just go for certified mail, doesn't matter if you're mailing as 1st class mail or other "faster" delivery options. Due to the "Timely mailing as timely filing" rule by IRS, you're all set. Of course, private delivery service (PDS) like Fedex, UPS, etc is a different story, you can use receipt for proof in that case, or request the staff to give you a written proof of mailing date. But you'll have to figure out the PDS address of your state IRS Treasury, they can't use PO Box or address w/o street name.

[Regalbuto79]

Here's one for you. Paper filed and sent my husband's return back on 4/17/2020, paid for RED UPS ... one day shipping. 80 dollars. Tracking says it got there on 4/18/2020.. Perfect right? Here we are almost three months later and his return isn't even registering on the IRS website, and you can't get anyone on the phone to look into it. By the way my husband hasn't gotten his stimulous check either. 

[xmasbaby0]

@Regalbuto79

MAILED RETURNS

Per the IRS website IRS Operations During COVID-19: Mission-critical functions continue: The IRS is not currently able to process individual paper tax returns. If you already have filed via paper but it has not yet been processed, do not file a second tax return or write to the IRS to inquire about the status of your return or your economic impact payment. Paper returns will be processed  once processing centers are able to reopen. 

If you mail a tax return (or a payment) to the IRS, it is a good idea to use a mailing service that will track it like UPS or certified mail so you will know it was received.

When you mail a tax return, you need to attach any documents showing tax withheld, such as your W-2’s or any 1099’s. 

TurboTax will not know anything about your mailed return, and will continue to show “Ready to Mail” on your account.  TurboTax will not know that you put your tax return in an envelope and took it to a mailbox.  TurboTax does not get updates on mailed  (or e-filed) returns.

When the IRS finally opens its mail and begins to process mailed returns you can check the status on the IRS site. https://www.irs.gov/refunds

State returns have to be mailed to the state.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1899433-how-do-i-track-my-state-refund

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/20/politics/irs-mail-trailers-covid/index.html

[crezakhani]

Same thing happened to me. My USPS tracking displays “In Transit” and I was told by a postal worker that the IRS processing center does not scan deliveries and it is an IRS issue.

[crezakhani]

Do you know if you can use the “Where is my return sign” even if you are not owed a return?

[GeoReb]

I certified mailed my federal return to one processing center   (Boston, MA) and got a confirmed delivery and my daughter’s return to a different one (Louisville, KY) which has been in transit for more than a week. 

[himalayankop]

Ditto from me. Sent from Corvallis to Ogden UT on 6th July and was checking frequently as it kept on showing the same once it reached Portland.  I checked on July 13th  and did a one day mail from UPS instead the next day. Got the same message from the same person. I've a question, did you get yours delivered eventually ? I'm worried thinking that documents considering my information is out there and no one knows where. I'd rather have my original tax redelivered  (although I sent a backup copy already) to the IRS later than never.