The Internal Revenue Service plans to permanently shut down its paper return processing center in Fresno, California later this month, requiring taxpayers and tax professionals in some western states to use a new mailing address.
The IRS has seen long delays in processing paper tax returns due to the pandemic, so the closure does not come at a good time for the agency. However, the closure was originally announced in 2016 and is part of a broader, ongoing efficiency strategy to accommodate the fact that most taxpayers are now filing electronically.
The number of electronically filed individual returns rose from 90 million in 2008 to over 145 million in 2020, which is over 90% of all tax returns submitted. The IRS anticipates the trend will continue in both individual and non-individual returns.
IRS headquarters in Washington, DC
Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg
With the change, Alaska, California, Hawaii, Ohio, and Washington state taxpayers who previously filed their federal tax returns with Fresno should now submit their tax returns to the processing center in Ogden, Utah.
The Ogden address for submitting individual paper returns is:
Ministry of Treasury
Internal Revenue Service
Ogden, UT 84201-0002
Fresno operation
The IRS plans to maintain its presence in Fresno while many other operations are still operating at full capacity, but the impending consolidation will allow the IRS to streamline operations and make better use of the available space.
When the consolidation was announced in September 2016, the Fresno paper processing center employed around 3,000 people. Since then, the IRS has taken steps to provide training and find additional employment opportunities for many of the affected employees. Others have chosen to retire or separate from the IRS.
The agency also maintains an update page for consolidating Fresno filing processing on IRS.gov.
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