[umanwizard]

Yes, "city" is one of the fields in your postal address, which is not necessarily related to what your particular state decides to call its "cities".

If you live in Phoenix but your postal address says "Glendale, AZ", then you would put "Glendale" on that form.

If you are genuinely confused about this and write "Phoenix" instead, (or, for example, "New York, NY" even though your address says "Brooklyn, NY"), I would be very surprised if any court would convict you of perjury. Your statement having been literally true is an affirmative defense to a perjury charge. The worst that will happen is the IRS won't be able to send you mail.

[dragonwriter]

> So I would be surprised if there is any federal form that requires you to put the "city" you live in, outside the context of a USPS address.

Forms that ask for separate physical and mailing addresses often use the shape of a USPS address for the physical address (including ZIP code), even though many of the fields may not apply. “Physical locations all have addresses shaped like postal addresses” is a common belief that is often reflected in form (and software/DB) design.

[umanwizard]

I would describe the issue here, though, as "Federal government believes everyone has a USPS address (mailing and/or physical)", as opposed to "local political divisions within a state are particularly meaningful to the federal government".

The thrust of my point is the same -- the feds don't ask you to write a city outside the context of an address. The fact that they assume addresses exist is a separate issue, IMO.