Someone else's tax return was sent to my exact address

TetraNitroCubane

As the title states, today when I got home I found what was clearly a tax return from the State in my mailbox. However, while it was addressed exactly to my residence, it had someone else's name on it (and mine was to be deposited electronically anyhow).

I'm uncertain as to how to handle this, and I was hoping I could ask a few questions of anyone knowledgable.

A) Can I just write "No such person at this address" and put it back in the mail? Will that cause any problems for me, or the person who this return is intended for?

Is this potentially evidence of fraud? I would gather that if someone were trying to do something unsavory, they'd be trying to use my name, rather than my address, but I'm uncertain.

Overall, I'm not sure the best way to proceed from here.

HappylilElf

It may be worth calling the State about. Sticking it back in the mail with that message on it could potentially lead to headaches.

As far as concerns about fraud it's possible. It kinda depends on your address though.

Growing up my address was like "XXXX 15 1/2 St S" and we'd get stuff intended for the people on 15th street and vice versa. Eventually our postal carrier caught on and started delivering it as much on name as the street.

Incidentally it was only a few years ago that my parents could even reliably put "15 1/2" in a lot of things online because of the slash in 1/2 and to this day there's still a few sites that will only take "15.5" for the street address.

It might not be a bad idea to check with the credit bureaus and again have a conversation with your State.

zepherin

TetraNitroCubane wrote: »

As the title states, today when I got home I found what was clearly a tax return from the State in my mailbox. However, while it was addressed exactly to my residence, it had someone else's name on it (and mine was to be deposited electronically anyhow).

I'm uncertain as to how to handle this, and I was hoping I could ask a few questions of anyone knowledgable.

A) Can I just write "No such person at this address" and put it back in the mail? Will that cause any problems for me, or the person who this return is intended for?

Is this potentially evidence of fraud? I would gather that if someone were trying to do something unsavory, they'd be trying to use my name, rather than my address, but I'm uncertain.

Overall, I'm not sure the best way to proceed from here.

There may be substantial legal issues for you to do anything with that mail but return it. You aren’t allowed to alter open or destroy other people’s mail.

The postal service says to write
“Not at this address“
And hand it to the mail carrier, or the Dropbox.

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/How-is-Undeliverable-and-Misdelivered-Mail-Handled#report_return_misdelivered

TetraNitroCubane

Thanks much for the advice and help! I reached out to the state on this one - I was instructed to write "No such person at this address" on the return and drop it back in the mailbox, which I did.

Fortunately my credit is frozen currently, by my own design, so hopefully if someone's trying to do something untoward it's not going to work. But as far as the state is concerned, I'm just supposed to send it back, despite it reaching the correct address. Still no idea why someone had their return sent to my address, but hopefully it is just nothing more than a typo somewhere.

HappylilElf

The only other thing I might recommend is check in with the state in about a month or so and make sure they aren't showing anyone else at your address.

Some states will do this check and some won't is the way I understand it but it's a way to try and ensure they no longer have your address on file for that person while also ensuring they still have that address on file for you and didn't do a whoopsie-daisy and delete everyone from that address.