"Andy" <andysharpe[at]juno.com> wrote:

- quote -

I had a friend who used to take a hole puncher and put a
hole in the bank code on checks he would send to the IRS.
The IRS would get the check on time, but it would take the
bank several extra days to process the check, allowing him
the float in the mean time.

Stu

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I can happily report that both IRS and California FTB
received my payments and they were VERY prompt in cashing
the checks (both checks cleared on the 4rd business day
after I mailed them). ----- spoca2

Andy comments:

I bet they have you in a dossier now, flagged as a potential
"economic terrorist"......

You should never have admitted on the internet to this
crime, as it can probably be used against you at your
trial...

)))))) Andy

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TaxSrv wrote:

- quote -

I have the impression that in 1998 the USPS stopped
collecting "postage due" from the recipient - it's only
collected if they return it to sender.

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"TaxSrv" <n3_eu[at]comcast.net> wrote:
- quote -

In the past the Post Office used to deliver mail with
insufficient postage, and seek payment from the recipient.
Knowing things like bill payments and tax returns would be
delivered, people would send them in without any postage at
all.

Needless to say the IRS, among others, didn't like that one
little bit, so the Post Office changed its whole procedure.
They might have decided to give a grace period. But normal
procedure would be to send it back.

Stu

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<spoca2005[at]yahoo.com> wrote

- quote -


An IRS P. O. Box for a Service or Processing Center is still
goes to physical IRS people, except in multiple USPS
mail-sack quantity. As often as I've visited Centers or
talked to many Postmasters, I never thought to ask about
that "postage due" stuff there. If I were betting, payment
is made out of some sort of kitty, or perhaps a billing
system.

Reg,
Fred F.

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- quote -

Thank you Bob, and Fred for youre replies.

I can happily report that both IRS and California FTB
received my payments and they were VERY prompt in cashing
the checks (both checks cleared on the 4rd business day
after I mailed them).

So, most likely post office overlooked the 2 cent shortage
in the stamp. Since both the deliveries were to P.O. Boxes,
I doubt IRS paid 2 cents, like in Fred's office.

Spoca2005

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- quote -

USPS does not return it for insufficient postage (only
no-postage), unless the addressee refuses to pay it. What
IRS big processing centers do, I don't specifically know,
but I suspect they do the obvious. To refuse it means a
potential and rather petty reasonable-cause dispute down the
road, costing IRS more than just pocket change. In my
smaller IRS office, we just paid it out of our own pocket
and chatted briefly with our friendly letter carrier. A
very few cheapskate employees would take it out of the
"coffee fund jar," fellow EE's money, including mine as
manager.

True story. Most times the charge was the last ounce on a
fat mailing, like 21-23 cents at the time. But one of my
subordinates was the union steward. He felt it should not
come out of his own pocket or the employees' coffee fund.
Unfair labor practice (ULP), under the National Labor
Relations Act, I surmise and quite technically correct, so
he would ask me for the money. So I just paid him, with
casual "malice aforethought," asking if he had change for a
quarter to the denomination of a penny. Hints he didn't
take so good.

Once every blue moon, we suspected a t/p under audit had
like an accurate digital postage scale, and shorted it one
stamp in mailing successive bunches of supporting documents,
perchance to deliver a message. If possibly true, we rather
appreciated the humor of it, with little thought to such a
bold affront to a desirable good-faith, adversarial
enforcement process. More t/p's than this exception seemed
to affix excessive stamps in such weighty matters (pun!), if
not delivery via FedEx. :-)

Fred F.

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- quote -

Relax. The post office is not going to return it. In the
first week after a rate increase (it took effect Jan. 8)
they will cut you some slack.

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Based on a preliminary estimate of my taxes, I determined
that my 2005 withholding from salary was a bit less than 90%
of 2005 taxes. So, I mailed $2500 check to IRS and another
$2500 to FTB on Monday and Tuesday of this week, using the
slip for 4th installment of 2005 estimated taxes. (But there
was no estimated taxes paid in installments 1, 2 or 3; only
salary withholding).

But I only used 37 cents stamps -- I just got back from a 6
week long overseas trip and did not know that the domestic
postage rate has increased to 39 cents.

I am more worried about the estimated taxes being returned
by post office and then being late. At the same time, I
don't want to mail another $5000, and find out that IRS and
FTB received and cashed both set of checks.

Is there some IRS/FTB office I can call and alert about the
4th installment payment possibly getting delayed, and would
it do any good? Anything else I can do to avoid future
hassles from IRS and FTB?

Thanks.

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