April 15 has always been a day full of stress and panic for me. Yes I’m one of those that wait until the last minute to do their taxes. Or even when I get them done early I screw them up somehow. I hate tax day!
One year I accidentally sent my tax return to the “IRS: Forms & Publications” department address instead of the tax return address. Very smooth. It’s in a whole other state! Luckily I realized my mistake before the end of the day April 15th and called the IRS. They suggested that I just redo my taxes and mail them off again to the correct address. Bummer was that I owed taxes that year. So I had to write a second check. And guess what!? The IRS cashed them both! They finally refunded one of them but it took a couple months.
So this year was no except to my legacy of unlucky April 15’s. Having just gotten married to a business owner I jumped on her coattails and sent my documents, along with hers, to her accountant. We got them back yesterday, we signed them and I was to take them to the post office today. I got to the post office this morning at about 7:20AM and it wasn’t open yet. So I just dropped our return in the blue mailbox at the curb. I called Kristin when I got home to let her know I dropped it off. She asks, “How much postage did you put on it?” - long silence. OH CRAP! I forgot to put postage on our tax return! So there sits our tax return in the bottom of the blue bin with no postage. It will for sure be returned or lost or both but whatever the case it wasn’t going to get postmarked by the end of the day. After cursing a blue streak I decide I’ve got to go back to the post office to see what can be done. I get in the long line of last-minute-tax-mailers and formulate what I’m going to say to the postal workers that are going to care less them I’m an idiot. I can envisioning them saying, “Sorry. Federal regulations state that once a parcel is in process it must follow the procedures blah blah blah”. Luckily I catch the eye of a manager-looking-type dude who was just milling around in the back. In my best I-am-a-humble-idiot tone of voice I told him what happened and asked if there was anything he could do for me. He smiled and said wait here - 10 minutes later he comes back with my postage-lacking envelope! I thanked him profusely! He saved my butt!
I am floored! I can’t believe this dude helped me. Here on one of the most frantic single mailing days - he stops to help out some idiot that doesn’t remember to put postage on his tax return. The U.S. Postal Service rocks!
