NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – With more people filing their taxes online, fewer are mailing their returns through the U.S. Postal Service.

With the decrease in demand for postal services at tax time, most North West California Post Offices will be open normal hours on April 15.

This year, tax day or the last day to file your 2012 federal and state tax forms without requesting an extension is Monday, April 15.

All tax filers are urged to plan well in advance of April 15, or they risk missing the midnight deadline.

Waiting until the last minute is usually not a good idea. Rushing can cause mistakes and the most common errors Americans make are not including enough postage and not providing the correct IRS mailing address.

Other common mistakes according to the IRS: Social Security Numbers are wrong or left off, math errors and forgetting to attach forms and schedules, i.e., W-2s, 1099s, etc.

To help ensure a successful tax season for its customers the US Postal Service offers the following tax mailing tips:

• Apply proper postage and stamps, especially with extra forms/schedules. It costs 46 cents for the first ounce; 20 cents for each additional ounce. (One ounce is about four pages).
• If you use a non-IRS labeled envelope, make sure you print the proper IRS address.
• Print your return address in the upper-left-hand corner of your tax mail envelope.
• Customers who wish certification that their tax mail form is received by the IRS should mail it using Certified Mail Service/Return Receipt, which is available at your local Post Office.
• While encouraged to mail before April 15, if you do wait until late on Tax Day be sure to drop off your tax mail return at a Postal Service location that offers late tax mail pick-up.

The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.