Why does the IRS have its own zip codes in the United States?
In: 76
Because they get a lot of mail?
There are such things in the UK as “Large User Postcodes”, where organisations that get very large amounts of mail can apply for their own postal code. This improves efficiency of the postal system as they can have their mail prioritised and seperated out from the mail in the rest of the geograpical region, also lessening the impact on other customers.
I imagine it’s the same situation in the US.
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Because of the huge volumes of mail they get for tax returns… makes it easier to sort out all the returns from other mail.
Because they get an unbelievable amount of mail. College campuses tend to have their own zip codes, too, as to technology campuses, industrial parks, and military installations.
That’s not unusual.
* The Pentagon has five ZIP codes, for five different parts of the military.
* The ZIP code “12345” refers to a GE plant in Schenectady, New York. As far as I can tell, the code refers (or used to refer) to a single building.
* The Empire State Building has its own ZIP code. So do *more than forty* individual buildings in New York.
* Some universities have their own ZIP code. For example, Stanford has two: one for campus mail, and one for P.O. boxes.
The purpose of ZIP codes is to efficiently route mail. The assignment of ZIP codes, and their granularity, depends on how best to deliver mail to people. It would be annoying for everybody involved if both the IRS and the folks who live in houses nearby had to use the same post office. It makes more sense to put the IRS’s mail into its own truck(s) and deliver it straight to the source. I mean, that’s what they would do anyways, but having a separate ZIP code makes that more “official” and integrated better with the rest of their logistics.
It’s also helped by the fact that most of these organizations have their own internal delivery services. You gotta imagine the IRS has hundreds of interns lugging faxes back and forth, and ditto the Empire State Building must have something for delivering packages to the 40th floor or whatever. The postal branches that serve those orgs are specialized to their needs.
They get as much mail as a whole neighborhood. And, the Post Office doesn’t have to deliver mail to each individual office at the IRS. Once bags of mail arrive at that zip code, the internal agency mailrooms take over. So, for efficiency, having that zip code belong ONLY to the IRS means the Post Office doesn’t have to separate out mail that’s NOT for the IRS but is in the same area.
Zip codes aren’t really that scientific. Others have mentioned that there are special zip codes for the Pentagon, buildings and Universities.
In theory you could have a single house or mail box be its own zip code. Probably would need to blackmail someone to get this, but technically feasible and nothing really wrong with it.
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