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Why NOT to e-File your taxes
When preparing your Federal tax return, you of course have an option to e-file your taxes; submit your tax return electronically rather than using the trusty United States Postal Service. According to the IRS most taxpayers will use this option. Most states also offer this same service. There is of course a fee for this ($19.95 for my 1040 return, as an example), and it is somewhat handier to use; you don't have to gather up all the printed forms into an envelope, apply postage, and send it in the mail. It is also easier and faster for the relevant tax agency (the IRS in the case of Federal returns, of course) to process. So, you may even get any refund a bit faster. The very best reason to e-file is of course the huge limits on the amount of paper used, making is a much "greener" choice. A great option, right? Well, consider the following: * You are shelling out another $19.95 to make the IRS's job easier. Shouldn't they be paying us for such a service? This is right alongside those banks that charge fees for using ATMs or on-line banking - you're actually paying extra for the opportunity to save time and effort for the organization. * Do you really want to save time and effort for an agency that is literally above the law; that is able to seize property and assets without the requirements that any other agency - government or otherwise - is required to fulfill (such as a fair trial)? * Maybe with the point above, your thought was "that won't happen to me". But with every dollar the IRS saves by not having to manually process the pertinent subset of their hundreds of nearly-incomprehensible forms that is relative to your tax situation, that's a dollar they can now spend in enforcement of tax law. And you paid them an extra $19.95 too? There's ~20 more dollars that can be used by the IRS to audit tax returns! And they definitely do use it for those purposes (among some others, to be fair) - the IRS FY2007 Enforcement and Service Results report backs this up. Your chances of an audit just went up, my friend. * Given the increase in enforcement and audits, the paper that was saved in filing your returns may well be lost anyway, in IRS-internal forms. This is not to condone tax evasion and/or dishonesty in reporting your taxes in any way! There is absolutely good reason to go after those attempting to get a "free ride" at the expense of honest taxpayers. I have more concern for those who unintentionally make minor mistakes (which is easy to do, given the complications and regular undulations of tax law); harassment of these individuals becomes much more likely as the amount of resource to back tax law enforcement increases. It is my belief that focussing effort on simplifying tax law would be the best investment for extra revenue. By such simplification, less effort would be required to properly and accurately file your taxes, and also to verify that a correct and complete return was filed. This would virtually eliminate the case of harassment for a minor unintentional mistake, of course. Unfortunately, simplification of tax law is not the direction the IRS chooses to take - rather the opposite has proved to be true. e-filing your tax returns does provide you some minor benefit, to be sure, but in the grand scheme of things and considering the agency that really benefits from this option, is it really worth it? |
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