Are Postal Delays Compromising Taxpayer Rights in CNMI, Guam?

Tax attorney Tina Azarvand and her business partner are putting the U.S. postal system to the test to find out how major delays in mail delivery could severely compromise CNMI and Guam taxpayer rights.

Azarvand and her business partner, who lives in Maryland, have been mailing Apple AirTags to track how long it takes to reach each destination in the expected timeframe.

"As of now, none of them have been," she told Marianas Press in an interview outside the U.S. Post Office in Chalan Kanoa on Saipan. She said about a dozen packages, across all delivery methods, have failed to arrive in the timeframe provided by the postal service.

Azarvand is sounding the alarm about how postal delays hurt taxpayer rights and compliance capabilities in U.S. territories like Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

In January, Azarvand wrote to CNMI Delegate Kimberlyn King-Hinds describing U.S. Postal Service issues as an "insurmountable barrier to basic constitutional rights." She said she wrote the letter on behalf of U.S. taxpayers residing in the CNMI and Guam. Azarvand said that delayed mail delivery between the states and the islands places residents here in a "discriminatory situation."

In her analysis, Azarvand concludes, "The documented disparities between mainland and Pacific territory operations point to systemic issues in USPS's handling of Pacific region mail. The combination of missed delivery standards, intentional delays, and service level discrimination calls for immediate operational review and reform. Without addressing these fundamental problems, the USPS risks perpetuating a two-tier service system that disadvantages Pacific territory residents and undermines its mission of providing reliable postal services to all Americans."