Last year I mailed a tax return to a fellow Minneapolis-suburb resident, about 10 miles away.

The tracking showed it spent a week in Texas.  Then a few days in Oklahoma.  Then back to Texas for a few days.  Eventually back to Minnesota and to the client.

I had one like that last year too, but the rest went smoothly.  This year the wheels have fallen off the mail truck.

Every tax return I mail is done Priority Mail with Tracking. Costs more and I add it to the client;s billing. you're correct, regular mail sucks.

You get tracking with Ground Advantage also, at less cost and usually with the same delivery time as Priority Mail.  Stop wasting your clients' money.

For incoming mail:  A client mailed me a package from a suburb, 25 miles from my office, and it took nine days to arrive.  But the address was hand-written in light ink on a grey envelope.  The Post Office sorts packages with scanning, and most addresses are recognized.  If it has to get past human eyes, several times, it goes very slowly.  

For outgoing mail:  You people are living in the era of long-distance charges.  "I made a phone call to Montana, why didn't it cost more than a local call?"  Well, that's just the way it is in the 21st Century.  Your mail goes from a local collection office, to a regional distribution center, to another regional distribution center, to a local delivery office.  Most of the time, between distribution centers it's on an airplane.  That's not where the time is spent.  It's on the ground at several sorting locations, where time is required.  

Even local mail travels farther than you think.  Mail something in Tucson, even to another Tucson address, and it is brought to Phoenix, 120 miles away, for sorting.  Then it is shipped back to Tucson.  

Thanks for suggesting I'm wasting client's money. UPS Ground is $6.87, Priorty Mail with Tracking is $7.71, for local delivery but (a) they removed the UPS box from my office complex (not enough packages to warrant it) and (b) USPS gives me free Tyvex envelopes. You have to use your own envelopes for UPS. So I'm not wasting anyone's money, I'm wasting time answering how I run my practice.

It appears that all mail in Minnesota is sorted in either St Paul or Minneapolis.  So if you are lucky enough to live in Big Mosquito Country, your package addressed to someone across the street will travel 300 miles or so round trip.  

 "regular mail sucks."

So does priority mail this year.  Everybody goes by priority mail so that I can at least tell the client that their return should be there right after it finishes its travels through Bangkok.

“your package addressed to someone across the street will travel 300 miles or so round trip”

if you remember Goldman Sachs and the aluminum can shell game, the USPS is following the same business model by inflating distance traveled in order to increase local pricing 

@dascpa I'm not suggesting how to run your practice, just trying to bring you up to date on today's shipping terminology.  "Ground Advantage" is what the United States Postal Service used to call  First-Class Package, Parcel Select Ground, and Retail Ground    It is not the United Parcel Service "Ground" service that you quote.  USPS is not UPS.  Apples are not oranges.  Try USPS Ground Advantage, your clients will like it because it costs less for the same delivery time.  

😁you can tell we are about to hit April and 2 weeks to go 🤣

Only two weeks to go?  Are you trying to ruin my day?😫

Super slow this year out here in CA too!

As long as I'm here, I'm just wondering if anybody knows the answer to this one.  Ironwoman received an e-mail from a client providing some additional information to finish her return.  We have her teenage daughter's return done, but in the e-mail, she added something additional for her daughter.  She mentioned that besides the W-2s that we already have, the kid worked two events for a food truck last year.  She didn't provide any dollar amounts, 1099s, or W-2s for that activity.  So does anybody know what the standard rate is for picking up income per event so I can redo the kid's return? 🙄