Where to Mail Your Federal Tax Return: With or Without Payment

Where you mail your federal tax return depends on two things: the state you live in and whether you are enclosing a payment. The IRS sends returns with checks to different processing centers than returns without, and mailing to the wrong address can add weeks to your refund. The addresses below apply to 2025 tax year returns (Form 1040 and 1040-SR) filed in 2026.¹

Mailing Address if You Are Not Enclosing a Payment

Returns without a payment go to one of three service centers, sorted by state of residence.¹

Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Austin, TX 73301-0002

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas

Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Ogden, UT 84201-0002

Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming

Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Kansas City, MO 64999-0002

Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin

The IRS reassigns states between centers from time to time, so it’s worth confirming your address on IRS.gov before you drop the envelope in the mail.¹

Mailing Address if You Are Enclosing a Payment

When a check or money order is in the envelope, use one of the two addresses below. Both are lockbox addresses printed on Form 1040-V, the payment voucher.²

Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 1214, Charlotte, NC 28201-1214

Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas

Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 931000, Louisville, KY 40293-1000

All other states and the District of Columbia

Include Form 1040-V loose in the envelope with the return and the payment. Do not staple or clip the three items together.²

Addresses for Filers Abroad and in U.S. Territories

If you live in a foreign country, use an APO or FPO address, file Form 2555 or Form 4563, or are a dual-status alien, your return goes to a single centralized address regardless of whether a payment is enclosed.³

Without a payment: Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Austin, TX 73301-0215, USA
With a payment: Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 1303, Charlotte, NC 28201-1303, USA

Residents of American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or the Northern Mariana Islands should consult IRS Publication 570 for their filing instructions, which differ from the addresses above.³

Amended Returns Go to Different Addresses

Do not send Form 1040-X to the Form 1040 address for your state. Amended returns use their own routing, and several states fall under a different processing center for amendments than for original filings.⁴

Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Kansas City, MO 64999-0052

Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin

Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Austin, TX 73301-0052

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas

Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Ogden, UT 84201-0052

Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming

Filers in a foreign country or a U.S. territory send Form 1040-X to the Austin, TX 73301-0215 address.⁴

How to Assemble the Return Before You Mail It

The IRS processes paper returns faster when they’re put together in a set order. Arrange your schedules and supporting forms behind Form 1040 or 1040-SR, sorted by the Attachment Sequence Number printed in the upper-right corner of each form. Any additional supporting statements go behind the schedule they relate to.⁵

Attach W-2 forms and any Forms 2439 to the front of Form 1040. If you received a corrected W-2 (Form W-2c), include both the original and the corrected version. Attach Forms W-2G and 1099-R only if federal tax was withheld.⁵

No staples. Anywhere. The IRS instructs taxpayers to skip them because they jam scanning equipment at the processing centers. Skip unrelated correspondence too, unless the instructions specifically call for it.⁵ Both spouses must sign a joint return, and Social Security numbers should be legible; a transposed digit is one of the most common reasons a return gets pulled for manual review.

Writing the Check

Make the check or money order payable to “U.S. Treasury,” not “IRS” or “Internal Revenue Service.” Do not send cash. On the front of the check, write:⁶

Your name and address
Your daytime phone number
Your Social Security number (or ITIN)
The tax year (for example, “2025”)
The form number (“1040”)

The IRS cannot accept a single check for $100 million or more.²

Getting Proof That You Mailed on Time

Under federal law, a return is considered filed on the postmark date, not the date it arrives at the IRS. An envelope postmarked by April 15, 2026 is on time even if it lands at the processing center days later.⁷

Regular first-class mail leaves no record of when you mailed anything. If the IRS later says the return never arrived, or arrived late, you carry the burden of proving otherwise. USPS Certified Mail with a return receipt solves that. Registered mail works too: the registration date counts as the postmark, and the receipt is evidence of delivery. Keep the receipt with your copy of the return.⁷

Approved Private Delivery Services

The same timely-mailing rule covers IRS-designated private delivery services, but only specific service levels qualify. Standard ground shipping from FedEx or UPS does not. The approved services are:⁸

DHL Express: DHL Express 9:00, DHL Express 10:30, DHL Express 12:00, DHL Express Worldwide, DHL Express Envelope, DHL Import Express 10:30, DHL Import Express 12:00, DHL Import Express Worldwide
FedEx: FedEx First Overnight, FedEx Priority Overnight, FedEx Standard Overnight, FedEx 2 Day, FedEx International Next Flight Out, FedEx International Priority, FedEx International First, FedEx International Economy
UPS: UPS Next Day Air Early A.M., UPS Next Day Air, UPS Next Day Air Saver, UPS 2nd Day Air, UPS 2nd Day Air A.M., UPS Worldwide Express Plus, UPS Worldwide Express

The date recorded by the carrier serves as the postmark. One catch: private carriers cannot deliver to P.O. Box addresses, so you’ll need the street address for the relevant IRS facility, which the IRS lists separately on its website.⁸

1
Internal Revenue Service. Where to File Paper Tax Returns With or Without a Payment
2
Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040-V Payment Voucher for Individuals
3
Internal Revenue Service. International – Where to File Form 1040 Addresses for Taxpayers and Tax Professionals
4
Internal Revenue Service. Where to File Addresses for Taxpayers and Tax Professionals Filing Form 1040-X
5
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1040
6
Internal Revenue Service. Pay by Check or Money Order
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 7502 – Timely Mailing Treated as Timely Filing and Paying
8
Internal Revenue Service. Private Delivery Services (PDS)