Comments on: E-Filing Should Be Free

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:40:56 +0000

Does anyone actually “lick” their stamps anymore? If it tried to, I’d have a bunch of adhesive in my mouth

By: Ron

Ron — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 00:20:43 +0000

Previously, e-file was included in my Turbo Tax purchase; saw today that it was $16.95. Researched on-line and saw if you pay more for the program, e-file is free but, obviously not free since you are paying more in the first place.

So………… I printed that baby (tax return) out and licked a couple of 39 cent stamps, bam, filed! And now, I have some cash left over for dinner out and they’ll just have to wait a little longer to process my returns and cash my checks.

Turbo Tax will soon be a thing of the past for me.

By: miller

miller — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 22:20:05 +0000

I didn’t use any tax program this year (I use the easy form!), but when I looked into e-filing, it would have cost me a few dollars. So, out of principle alone, I sent in the paper. =)

But I wanted to add that since I didn’t use a computer program, I wasn’t *directly* going through an H&R or another big financial name. It looks like it would have gone through “Free File Alliance, LLC” which is some group of private sector software companies (maybe including H&R, etc.). Note, its *free* for people with AGI’s under $52k.

http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html

I agree it isn’t the government getting the money, but rather this group the government contracted e-filiing off to. And that company needs to make money — hence the charge.

But regardless, I agree with everything everyone has said. The government is saving money via e-filing (could you imagine the person’s job it is to re-copy everyone’s paper taxes into a database???), so it should be free. The IRS needs to get their pants on straight with this one. It just doesn’t add up.

By: SteveK

SteveK — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 21:17:49 +0000

I believe that the IRS makes publicly available their Application Programming Interfaces, so one can technically write their own e-filing software. But if you decide to fire up your copy of Visual Studio to start coding, you might not finish it before Tuesday.

By: Maria

Maria — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 17:10:24 +0000

You need to be careful with some of these companies. If I were to e-file (which I won’t until I’m forced to), I would probably use the trusted reputation of Intuit or H&R Block, even if they cost more. In today’s ID Theft / hacker society you need to be careful about these virtually unknown companies (as well as the known ones) & how they protect your data. This is the main reason I will not e-file. Almost every other day you hear about a new company who’s system was hacked, not to mention how often this happens to various government agencies (VA is up to what 2 or 3 data ‘compromises’ now). So, along with buggy software, you need to worry about the databases getting hacked into & all your precious IRS data stolen. No thanks – I’ll continue to file on paper.

By: jim

jim — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:36:41 +0000

Hahahah, if I wanted to avoid an audit I’d just drop the post.

By: shadox

shadox — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 03:33:46 +0000

They did not limit it enough.

By: shadox

shadox — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 03:31:28 +0000

I wonder if your retraction came fast enough to stop the IRS from revenge auditing you…

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:16:07 +0000

I couldn’t agree more.

By: MikeK.

MikeK. — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:23:32 +0000

I had a strange epiphony this weekend. My 4 year old daughter was sitting with me as I was doing my taxes. She asked what “taxes” were. I told her that the government uses taxes to pay for things like roads, schools, fire trucks, etc. And then she says to me: “You mean its God?”

Part of me was laughing, part of me was crying. Government = God in the eyes of a 4 year old. Omnipotent in their eyes. Another example of the great wisdom of our forefathers in trying to limit the power of government.

By: Blaine Moore (First Time Home Owner)

Blaine Moore (First Time Home Owner) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:55:26 +0000

Yeah, the fee is in place so that HR Block, Intuit and other companies like that can force you to use their services. There is no public way of e-filing. They want your money.

It is why I didn’t e-file this year.

By: Savvy Steward

Savvy Steward — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:47:10 +0000

I used Turbo Tax online and was charged for the e-filing. I think it was free last year. Or maybe they bundled the price together.

Anyways, I agree that whether it’s the government or these software companies, they should make it free.

By: kurt

kurt — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:45:07 +0000

It’s all about distraction. If you are complaining about the couple bucks you have to pay to efile, you won’t notice the tens of thousands of dollars you pay them for other stuff.

By: CK

CK — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 18:45:17 +0000

Let us know how the audit goes.

By: jim

jim — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 18:33:42 +0000

Hmmm… excellent points, I didn’t realize it was the companies taking the fee.