topic Re: USPS changes postmark date policy and could make your bills and tax returns late. in Credit in the News

USPS changes postmark date policy and could make your bills and tax returns late.

AndrewF — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 23:20:42 GMT

The USPS is apparently now postmarking letters and packages with the date that they arrive at the mail sorting facility, instead of the day they get processed on the way out of your local post office.

This could make credit card, rent, tax returns, and utility payments late and trigger late fees and penalties for those who tend to mail their bills in at the last minute.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/usps-postmark-policy-change-raises-100000334.html

If you want to make sure that nothing that depends on the postmark is late, and don't know if it will make it to the mail sorting center on time, you will need to stand in line and request a "manual postmark stamp" from the clerk to make sure that it is considered timely.

Re: USPS changes postmark date policy and could make your bills and tax returns late.

crystal626 — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 02:32:15 GMT

It's pretty obvious why the USPS is doing this and it's disgusting.

Re: USPS changes postmark date policy and could make your bills and tax returns late.

AndrewF — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 03:39:13 GMT

@crystal626 wrote:
It's pretty obvious why the USPS is doing this and it's disgusting.

Yes, on top of generating tons of late fees for the banks, it will also affect elections in states like Illinois, where we count ballots that are postmarked by election day. It will result in hundreds of thousands of last minute ballots being thrown in the trash all over the country.

On top of the overall campaign to degrade the post office, which went into the current phase on April 1st. Ever since they slowed down the mail again, they also went from 2-3 clerks at the desk to 1 and a line going clear out the door.

If I get a package, I now have to stand there for 20 minutes. Imagine all the people trying to stand in line just to get a postmark.

It's in the standard residential leases that most landlords around here use that your rent is not late as long as it is "postmarked by the first", so if you go in there and you're down to the wire your landlord might choose to fine you $75 for late rent due to the new policy.

Re: USPS changes postmark date policy and could make your bills and tax returns late.

JamesS84 — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 22:55:20 GMT

Thanks for the heads up! I’m a procrastinator, so this could really make a difference for me.

Re: USPS changes postmark date policy and could make your bills and tax returns late.

Thomas_Thumb — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 16:55:56 GMT

Cast your mail in ballot in September for the mid terms. But, ballots won't be available. Better luck next time.

Re: USPS changes postmark date policy and could make your bills and tax returns late.

AndrewF — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 18:57:36 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
Cast your mail in ballot in September for the mid terms. But, ballots won't be available. Better luck next time.

I won't get political, but more about just describing the process of returning one.

In my county, we have a "tracker" that shows the date it was mailed to you and the date it got back to them, and whether it is "Good" or "Challenged".

A couple of years ago an "election judge" which is basically something any registered voter in the precinct can sign up to do for about minimum wage, so you might guess at who that appeals to, "challenged" my ballot and said my signature didn't match and I never got the "cure" letter that I was supposed to receive.

I only knew it because I was watching it, and so I went down there and said "Yeah, my shoulder is broken and my rotator cuff is torn. Thank you so much for calling out my signature being a little off and making me come down here in person."

So they asked for a "government issued photo ID" and I handed them my passport card, my driver's license, and my firearm owner ID, and they asked if I voted on that ballot and if that was my signature, and I said "Yes I did, and yes it was."

So if anyone wonders if you can be challenged after you mail it in, in Illinois, yes you absolutely can and it's an even bigger PITA than going down and voting in-person if it happens, because you get to go to the courthouse, strip yourself of metal, go through security, talk to someone who doesn't even know how to handle it, who tries to hand you a fake ballot to get rid of you ("provisional") instead of the affidavit.

So I won't be affected by the postmark policy because I just go down there during early voting now. We've got more than a month of it so you'll find time.

But back to the Post Office, you can't rely on it for anything, and it's only getting worse. In 2020, I requested a mail ballot, and it didn't arrive until after election day. It was getting close so I had to go in person and sign a form saying it didn't arrive in a timely manner and I would vote in person and destroy the mail ballot if it arrived. It arrived three days after the election, so I just sent it through the shredder.

The solution that has the most moving parts is the one that's going to be jammed up the easiest. I don't send anything through the post office if it's important if there's any other choice.

I e-file my taxes, I pay my bills online, I e-file court cases, I e-filed my spouse's immigration papers at least the ones that there was such an option, and I put a tracking number or FedEx'd the rest.

The Post Office failing, in my opinion, is basically a classic death spiral. They get fundiing and service cuts, become unreliable, people stop paying for all their services if they can avoid it. The funding goes down, more unreliable, more people avoid it, price hikes, more people avoid it, more unreliable.

It's being primed for takeover.

Now, I will say one thing for them, they finally got rid of those horrible 9 mile a gallon General Motors/Grumman Long Life Vehicles, but that won't lead to as much operational efficiency at current gas prices, but gas prices are volatile, so they always go back up long-term.

But if you don't want things to go late, people are finding that it's best to avoid them. And the new postmark policy will make it worse because who even knows when the letter will make it to the sorting center?

Re: USPS changes postmark date policy and could make your bills and tax returns late.

TrapLine — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 18:26:15 GMT

Good posting! Pretty well covered the subject.

Will add that an individual I know continued mailing in his mortgage payment as always for years. In a three month period it was recorded as late with the mortgage processor and would affect his credit. He was "say what" ... I told hom that USPS has changed the time lines on the delivery of First CLass Mail at least twice in the last couple of years. Where I live the USPS stated we have five days to deliver First Class Mail.

Informed him he would have to change his ways or the Mortgage Lender would have rights related to his failed on time payments. Frankly, I told him to sign up for electronic payments and avoid the whole USPS System.

Gads, paper checks and stamps went the way of the Dinosaur. I know, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make 'em drink" ...

Re: USPS changes postmark date policy and could make your bills and tax returns late.

AndrewF — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 00:30:18 GMT

@TrapLine wrote:
Good posting! Pretty well covered the subject.

Will add that an individual I know continued mailing in his mortgage payment as always for years. In a three month period it was recorded as late with the mortgage processor and would affect his credit. He was "say what" ... I told hom that USPS has changed the time lines on the delivery of First CLass Mail at least twice in the last couple of years. Where I live the USPS stated we have five days to deliver First Class Mail.

Informed him he would have to change his ways or the Mortgage Lender would have rights related to his failed on time payments. Frankly, I told him to sign up for electronic payments and avoid the whole USPS System.

Gads, paper checks and stamps went the way of the Dinosaur. I know, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make 'em drink" ...

I mail my rent but I do it around the 18th or 19th at the very latest.

It's good that if they say five days, give them ten.

Re: USPS changes postmark date policy and could make your bills and tax returns late.

Lou-natic — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 23:56:12 GMT

@crystal626 wrote:
It's pretty obvious why the USPS is doing this and it's disgusting.

Reading is hard.

"It does not signal a change in postmarking procedures with regard to how or what we postmark, but is instead intended to improve public understanding of the information postmarks convey, when in the course of operations they are typically applied, and their relationship to the date of mailing."

Re: USPS changes postmark date policy and could make your bills and tax returns late.

AndrewF — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 18:50:12 GMT

@JamesS84 wrote:
Thanks for the heads up! I’m a procrastinator, so this could really make a difference for me.

If you don't owe the IRS, like you're getting a refund or something, just file an extension.

If you need to paper file a state return, but can e-file a federal return and pay that, then remember that many states, like Indiana and Illinois, give you an automatic six month extension. The "fallback date" for Illinois returns is automatically October 15th.

If you expect to owe the IRS or state and cannot pay, file an extension and make an estimated payment.

If you can't make your payment at all and the filing deadline is coming, file anyway, and tell the tax filing program "I would like to make a payment arrangement." Filing on time gets rid of the failure to file penalty (25%), and setting up a payment plan before the deadline gets rid of the "failure to pay" penalty (another 25%), as long as you stick to the plan it will only be interest on what you owe them built into the installments.

The key thing here is you must do something by the tax filing deadline.

This is why I strongly discourage paper tax filings if you can possibly avoid doing them. If you can't avoid it, then make sure to follow all of the instructions on the cover sheet your tax software gives you (TurboTax gives you one that reminds you to sign and date the return, but do not mail the cover sheet itself, just the rest.) to the address given for each return, and I told my friend to send his in a photo mailer (all the post office had left, no envelopes, lol) and ask for a tracking number on it, so that you can prove that you mailed it and that the taxing authority got it.

If you receive a letter from the taxing authority, respond to it promptly. If it's a "technical audit" where they say "Hey man, you forgot a 1099-INT from your bank." or something, you have the right to contest it, but if it is correct, I would suggest just paying it according to the instructions on the form to get rid of them quickly.

I think e-filing is great if you can do it. It's one less thing to pay the Post Office for and potentially allow them to bungle and have the taxing authority reach out and say we never heard from you at all and here's the penalties. I've been e-filing my returns since well before it was cool because I've always done better with computers than pen and paper stuff. I loved FreeTaxUSA in 2003 and only did TurboTax this year because they had a "come back to us and it's free, even your state" offer.

I helped my friend use it. H&R Block said that since he had a 1099-NEC form, they were going to charge him $250, and TurboTax was $0 and handled the whole thing with a Q&A session.

Remember that when you're dealing with the mail, the stakes are usually the highest when it involves the government and a deadline. If they lose your credit card payment, you might get hit with a small fee, but the IRS isn't very forgiving even if it was the post office's fault.

Re: USPS changes postmark date policy and could make your bills and tax returns late.

Zoostation1 — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 23:24:09 GMT

@AndrewF I've been trying to get my dad to file his taxes electronically, but he's insiting on still doing them by hand and mailing in. He's 79 and it's the only electronic thing he won't embrace cause he's worried about free and low cost filing services getting hacked (nevermind that he's been using online banking for years, pays nearly all his bills online and uses zelle regularly). In a way, maybe it's good and helps keep him sharp, but he'll complain about how long it takes and how many schedules he has to fill out. Oh well lol.