Post Offices Keeping Normal Hours at Income Tax Deadline

Don’t expect your local Post Office to be open late this weekend as the deadline for filing your incomes taxes nears, local and national officials tell Patch.

“We haven’t had extended hours here for about 10 years, maybe longer,” said Angelo Valucci, postmaster at the Ardmore Post Office.

Besides, the normal Ides-of-April deadline is extended this year by three full days. Filings must be postmarked by Monday, April 18. The IRS, it would seem, is basically telling the American public, “Look. Relax. Take the weekend.”

“We used to stay open later, but we stopped doing that,” said a postal worker at the Merion Station Post Office, who asked not to be named. “We used to work until midnight.” 

The U.S. Postal Service has lost many millions of dollars in revenues over the past decade, caused by a precipitous decline in the volume of first-class mail. And since the recession hit a few years ago, tens of thousands of postal workers have lost their jobs (or were not replaced when they left).

The days of accommodating late night procrastinators, then, would seem to be long gone.

“The main Post Office at 30th and Chestnut streets in Philadelphia will not have extended hours for April 18,” stated Cathy Yarosky, Philadelphia metro district spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service. “The lobby will be open until 9 p.m.  There will be no extended retail hours at any of our city offices.”

For many years, images of cars and pedestrians streaming toward the 30th Street branch were an annual staple on the calendars of local TV news stations. It was a sort of video hangover cure for the dried-up seasonal snow coverage bonanza.

But these days, in addition to the economic woes of the Postal Service, there are simply far fewer excuses for being tardy with Uncle Sam’s slice of the pie.

“With the increasing number of online tax filings, there has been very little need to extend post office hours of operations widely,” said Joanne Veto, a national spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service.

That said, extended hours are ultimately a local decision, she added.

Most post offices close at noon on Saturday. For last-minute filers in the Ardmore-Merion-Wynnewood Patch zone, though, it might help to know that the Ardmore Post Office is always open until 1 p.m. on Saturdays. And the Wynnewood Post Office (tucked away behind the Wynnewood Shopping Center) is regularly open on Saturdays until 2 p.m.