US citizen federal income tax return (confusion regarding mailing address)

I ask for patience to whoever reads this, because it’s really irritating the hell out of me, and I don’t intend to irritate others. So whoever is able to help, your help is much appreciated. If you feel that things are confusing after the first few lines, just please stop reading further, because it’ll get even more complicated.

First of all, I do not e-file, it doesn’t seem to work for me for various reasons, so I always file paper returns to the US. Now, since I moved to Germany many years ago I have filed my federal income tax return using “DHL Express”. I’d go to the Deutsche Post, fill out a DHL Express International form where I also put the recipient’s address, and that’s it. In about two days I’d get a confirmation online that it arrived to its destination.

When I was filing last year however, I went to the post office wanting to do the same, and they said things have changed, with DHL Express it’s all done digitally. I don’t have to fill out anything, but instead just provide them the address. I thought cool, that’s even easier, here’s the address:

**Department of the Treasury**
**Internal Revenue Service**
**Austin, TX 73301-0215**
**USA**

Problem: Their system doesn’t accept the address because there’s no street / street number. I tell them I have no other address. The person tries some stuff and the system just doesn’t accept it. She tells me I can’t ship it like this and have to find an alternative. The discussion lasts for about 10 minutes me trying to convince her that there must be some way. I tell her to just put “Internal Revenue Service” or “Internal Revenue Service Center” as the street. She says both versions are a bad idea because since there’s no “street number” the shipment will most likely be returned to me. I insist that she does it anyway and that it’s my responsibility if it doesn’t work out. She does it by entering “Internal Revenue Service” as the street. The shipment successfully arrived to its destination.

This year I thought about saving myself a headache trying to convince people at the post office what to do here, so I wanted to buy and print out the DHL Express label at home through their website. Well, having tried it online, I am experiencing more difficulties than at the post office. First of all, the second part of the zip code after the dash is not accepted. Secondly, “internal revenue service” is not accepted without a street number. Thirdly, I need to provide a valid mobile phone number of the recipient. I managed to trick the system by providing the regular IRS number as the phone, plus leaving out the remaining parts of the zip code, and also entering “IRS” for the street number. However, before proceeding to buy and print, I did some google searching, and it turns out there is also this address:

**Internal Revenue Submission Processing Center**
**3651 S IH35**
**Austin, TX 78741**
**USA**

Which I found here…

[https://www.irs.gov/filing/submission-processing-center-street-addresses-for-private-delivery-service-pds](https://www.irs.gov/filing/submission-processing-center-street-addresses-for-private-delivery-service-pds)

… where it says **”Private Delivery Services should not deliver returns to IRS offices other than those designated below.”**

Now, the DHL Express International that I’m using is indeed a “Private Delivery Service” as listed on the IRS site, which could also be interpreted to mean that I should’ve always been sending it to this address. However, there have never been any issues before with my returns arriving, and it’s also not the address listed on their page for citizens overseas:

[https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/us-citizens-and-resident-aliens-abroad](https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/us-citizens-and-resident-aliens-abroad)

As you can see, that page above only lists the “problematic” address (the one without a street) for citizens abroad.

I actually called IRS and managed to speak to a live person. I explained the situation, gave them the address above (3651 South Interregional Highway 35), asking if I can send it there, and they somewhat reluctantly (IMO) said “Let me check… yeah, they should be able to receive it there. You can send it to that address.”

Does anyone have suggestions what the best approach to this would be? I tried FedEx and there are also problems with the first address, and UPS is twice as expensive, plus I also have to trick the system. It seems I have three options:

**1.) Go to the post office and try to convince someone like last year to trick the DHL Express system and use the standard “Internal Revenue Service” address.**

**2.) Print my own label at home also by tricking the system, but the address looks pretty weird that way, plus I have to remove parts of the zip-code and add a fake mobile phone number for the recipient.**

**3.) Use the “newer” address I found, which was confirmed to me by the IRS customer service, although IMO somewhat reluctantly confirmed, at least that’s how I interpreted it. My biggest problem is that this address (3651 South Interregional Highway 35) is not listed on the IRS citizens abroad page.**

I plan on sending this tomorrow, but it’s pretty frustrating, because I see downsides / potential risks with all three options. Any advice is very much appreciated, just please no e-filing discussions. I also don’t want to send it via regular mail because it takes too long to get there and I have no valid proof of receipt.

It’s also even more frustrating when you realize that only two countries in the world: the USA and Eritrea, have this “citizenship-based” taxation law. Sigh.