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Gideon Send · Mail

Mail your completed documents. Printed, assembled and handed to the carrier by a person.

Upload the documents you have finished and signed. A person at Gideon prints them in black and white, puts them in an envelope in the order you gave them, and hands it to USPS by the service you choose. Your mailing's page then shows the date it was mailed, the carrier's receipts, and the tracking number when the service has one.

What the $15 handling fee covers

  • $15 per mailing. One mailing is one envelope (or package) to one address.
  • It pays for printing up to 20 pages in black and white, assembling them in the order you uploaded them, and dispatching the envelope with the carrier you choose.
  • Postage, and any extras you choose, are added on top, at the carrier's own price of the day, with nothing added. They are itemized before you pay.
  • More than 20 pages: printing beyond the 20 included pages is quoted before you pay. It is not in the $15.
  • More than one address: each address is a separate mailing, with its own $15 handling fee.

What mailing is not

  • Mailing is not tax preparation, not an explanation of a notice, not writing a response, and not representation before the IRS. None of those is in the $15. They are separate services: Enrolled Agent services and IRS Notice Review.
  • Nobody at Gideon reads your documents for tax correctness or completeness, or checks them for signatures. They are printed exactly as you upload them.

Signatures

Sign before you upload. Uploading does not sign anything. Gideon prints each page exactly as it is in your file, so a signature is printed as it appears in your upload. If a form's instructions call for an original signature, check that a printed copy will do — or mail the signed original yourself.

How it works

  1. Upload your completed documents: PDFs, or photographs of each page.
  2. Give the address it goes to, copied from the form's instructions or the IRS letter, and your return address. Gideon does not choose the address for you.
  3. Choose how it is mailed.
  4. Review the packet — the page count, and the PDF exactly as it will be printed — and confirm it is complete, signed and ready to mail.
  5. See the itemized total. Postage and extras are the carrier's own prices of the day for your packet, asked of the carrier each day, with nothing added; the total can be paid for 7 days. When the carrier's price cannot be had, a person looks it up and quotes it instead. Nothing is charged before you have seen the total.
  6. Pay the itemized total.
  7. A person prints, assembles and mails it, and records the date, the carrier's receipts and any tracking number on your mailing's page.

Nothing is mailed automatically: every step after you pay is done by a person, by hand.

Mailing options

Each one at the carrier's own price of the day; your mailing shows the price for your packet as you choose.

USPS

  • First-Class Mail — no tracking on its own

    USPS First-Class Mail, in a 9 × 12 inch envelope. No tracking on its own: add Certified Mail for a mailing receipt and tracking.

  • Priority Mail — USPS tracking included

    USPS Priority Mail in a Flat Rate Envelope, which comes with USPS Tracking.

  • Priority Mail Express — USPS tracking included

    USPS Priority Mail Express in a Flat Rate Envelope, which comes with USPS Tracking.

Extras

  • Certified Mail — with USPS First-Class Mail or Priority Mail

    USPS gives a mailing receipt at the counter and tracks the item.

  • Return Receipt — with USPS First-Class Mail or Priority Mail

    USPS's record of delivery: who signed for the envelope, and when. The card comes back by mail to the return address. Offered with Certified Mail.

  • Certificate of Mailing — with USPS First-Class Mail or Priority Mail

    A USPS form, stamped at the counter, showing the date the envelope was mailed. No tracking.

What “mailed” means, and what it does not

  • Paid is not mailed. A mailing is marked mailed only after a person at Gideon has handed the envelope to the carrier, with the date it was handed over, the carrier's receipts, and the tracking number when the service has one.
  • Mailed is not delivered. Delivery is what the carrier's tracking or a return receipt shows. Neither one means the IRS has received, accepted or processed what you sent.
  • Gideon does not guarantee delivery, the IRS's receipt, acceptance or processing, or that a mailing meets any deadline.
  • There is no promised mailing date. A mailing goes out after it is quoted, paid for, and printed and assembled by a person. If a deadline is close, mail it yourself.

Your documents

  • Stored encrypted. Only you, and the people at Gideon who prepare your mailing, can open them, and every download is recorded.
  • The packet is kept for 90 days after it is mailed, so you can download exactly what was sent, and then deleted. The mailing records — the carrier's receipts and the tracking number — stay with your account.
  • A draft nobody has changed in 14 days, and a total not paid within 30 days, is cancelled; a cancelled mailing's pages are deleted 7 days later.
  • Pages are printed one page of your upload to one printed page, in black and white. Up to 20 pages are in the handling fee.
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