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Here’s a sure sign the Internet age has truly arrived -- and the Postal Service is really in trouble: Even the Internal Revenue Service is giving up on snail mail.
The IRS announced last week that it will no longer mail out tax packets. The packets contained forms, schedules and instructions for filing a paper income tax return.
Instead, taxpayers will be able to get their forms online or at local IRS offices, libraries and post offices, beginning in early January.
The IRS also has set up a website that provides options for free tax software, online forms and electronic filing. People who make under $49,000 a year or are over 60 can also take advantage of special services to help them with their taxes.
The tax collectors said they're making the move to save some money, and also because more people are filing electronically.
Last year, only 8 percent of taxpayers received a packet in the mail, according to the IRS. The rest used software or electronic filing service, or paid a professional to file the return.
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The taxman wanted to go online and even give you an amount to pay a long time ago. HR block and that whole industry were very against the IRS making it any easier for you so you would have to pay them to make it easy.
While a small government is good, some industries make a lot of money off of the large, encumbered government.
So smart. When almost no controls exist on identity theft.
Correction. Just getting forms on our own is probably alright for most people, if this does not force everyone to file their taxes only by 'efile'.
So the IRS is asssuming that everyone has access to a computer and can print forms somewhere? Would be nice, but the US is definitely not there yet. A great goal but a bit premature, I'd say.
NO! They are not making that assumption. The article specifically stated that forms will be available at libraries, post offices, IRS offices, etc.
"Instead, taxpayers will be able to get their forms online or at local IRS offices, libraries and post offices, beginning in early January."
GREAT!!! No request from the IRS--- no payments from me! I can now get lost as far as the IRS knows!
They article did say that paper forms will still be available at IRS offices, libraries and post offices. They just aren't going to waste the money to mail them out to people that probably will file electronically anyway. So how is this a premature move?
I get a packet in the mail most years and it goes straight into the recycling cause I've done mine electronically for about the last 12 years.
So my 88 year old mother is supposed to go out searching for forms? Get real. She worked all her life. She deserves to have them mailed to her.
It seems to me you would help your 88 year old mother and get them for her ??? get real
No the IRS isn't assuming everyone has access ot a computer or can print forms somewhere but they do assume they have access to a post office or library where they can pick the forms up
what about the handicaped??????? wtf,,,some of us cant get out!!!!!
No offense but you could call someone for help or are you too proud?
Ray cote, you make a good point. You can also call to get tax forms sent to you:
1-800-TAX-FORM.
BinNH--- Guess you missed the part about Post Offices and Libraries having the paper forms. You are right we are not there yet but most people have a Library and most Libraries have computers to use if they do want to file the forms online.
And they had better get them all downloaded in 1 hour. That is the time limit for computer use at libraries, and many also charge for printing.
It's not just the forms, but the instruction booklet of about 80 pages. That would limit many printers. Is the idea from a printer cartridge lobbyist? If anyone really trusts computer records to be correct, available, and non hacked, they are delusional. Where is YOUR proof when the audit comes 3-5 years after the forms are mailed? Many computers are replaced in that time frame.
Call your local library and find out when the tax materials will be available. They should have both forms and instruction booklets for those of you who like to read. I mean come on the basic forms have been pretty much the same for years now. Now if your finances are so complicated that you need more help I would suggest you hire someone to help you fill out your taxes.
The article does not let you know that the IRS DOES NOT send libraries all the forms. I work at a public library and we get fewer forms every year for the IRS. The library has people coming in all the time to get the forms but we may not have them. One of the hardest forms to find are 1009 and W-2 and these CAN NOT be printed off from the IRS website.
First of all the post office is open during my work hours. No late hours to pick up forms. Secondly, I do not file my return online. I have too many pages and I do not want to pay someone to do them for me, nor do I want to pay for the online service since I am not over 60 or make less than $49K.
If its such a problem why not just mail then to the people that file paper returns. Then it wouldn't be a waste sending it to the people that file online. Obviously this is just the first step to requiring online filing.
Cheek v. U.S., 111 S.Ct. 604 (1991) ~ "If [your name here] has a subjective good-faith belief, no matter how unreasonable, that [your name here] is not required to file a tax return, the government cannot establish that [your name here] acted willfully."
Tell that to Ed and Elaine Brown
NOW THAT for once is the smart way to do something!! It should have been this way even before the internet. Now the next step. FLAT TAX and we can get rid of the majority of the tax man.
Dear Sir:
If I am to pay taxes on my income, then I should be able to get my tax forms and pub. in the U. S. mail.
Richard H. Wirth
Good Idea but you will still have to print the forms and if you don't have access to a computer you are just s....out of luck!
"Instead, taxpayers will be able to get their forms online or at local IRS offices, libraries and post offices, beginning in early January."
Schools and libraries can help for a nominal fee.
Or get one at the post office.
Greed is good! G.G.
The Taxman!
When this happens let us see some government lay-offs and let them join the rest of us.
The governement(IRS) is putting the government(USPS) out of business. Interesting.
Technically, the post office is not a government agency, they are just governed by them if that makes sense. Postal workers are not government employees. You are correct, however, in the theory that the IRS is putting the USPS out of business, but then again, does the USPS really need help with that?
Can't wait till the IRS is something hated in the history books.
CLOSE THE IRS DOWN. SAVE THE PEOPLES MONEY. FLAT TAX NOW!
The tax system we have now is an apportioned tax and is not what is allowed in the Constitution or it's Ammedments. Taxing is allowed as long as everyone is taxed equally. Under the current system if you make more you pay more which is wrong. The Flat Tax will continue this trend.
What is fair and should be implemented is a Federal Sales Tax. With this the IRS is removed from the lives of the Citizens and Employers are no longer Tax Collectors. Everyone pays the same based on what you spend. This also will insue that the money laundering and people paid "under the table" eventually pay taxes.
The IRS need not be abolished but they certainly need to be removed from our lives. In my opinion there is no bigger Domestic Terrorist organization. The IRS causes more fear in Americans than any Middle Eastern Terrorist and should be stopped.
I'm with you. I hope I live to see it -- a day when the IRS will just be an ugly memory. I doubt I will make it that long, sigh!
And #2 was sarcasm
I understand that forms will be available at post offices, libraries, etc., but what about old people who are home-bound without access to a computer? That'll be pretty tough on them. Not everybody has family or friends to help out....
This is definitely a concern, but if they're old and home-bound, they are either capable of making it to the grocery store or perform other small errands to stay independent, or they have a caretaker. Either way, they should be able to get the forms from the post office whether they pick it up themselves or have a drop-in caretaker. If they have neither of these options available to them, then their problems are far larger than how to get their forms
By definition, a home bound person is someone who is not capable of making it to the grocery store or performing other small errands to stay independent. And to assume that everyone has a responsible caregiver to help manage their affairs is naive. If that were the case, staff at local Area Agency on Aging offices would not be needed.
In Portland, Oregon, the Libraries and Post Office were out of voter's pamphlets days ago, and it seems they are always out of the tax forms I need. The post office is the same story. I have to register for a computer at the library and wait for over an hour for a turn to get on those websites to print, which I then have to pay for by the page, or pay to take the bus downtown to the IRS building. Look at the government distribution of Priority Mail boxes, they never seem to have the size of flat rate box I need. So I special ordered those online, and it took 3 weeks for them to arrive. I think they should have a place on the tax form to request that next year's tax packet be mailed for those who wish.
Maybe we can take it back to the old days when the tax collector had to come to your door to collect. I'm in favor of waiting for that!
I think it definitely makes it much easier that you can do your tax return online and have it e-filed and besides, you definitely get your refund much faster.
Also, it said that they will not be mailing this out but did not state that you will have to go online to get a copy of the paperwork. They will have copies at the Library, Post Office, etc.
The post office has already been crying that they are going to quit delivering mail on Saturdays. This will definetly push that decision. The postman delivers to me people who are not living at my address and the wrong addresses to my address. Maybe the extra time can be used learning to read again so they can deliver the mail correctly.
amen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the post offices in new bedford mass must have illiterate people my address is 61 but i get mail for 23,,,,and my last name is printed huge on my mail box!!! you would think they would knowhow to read but,,,,they should send them back to school to learn how to read!!!!
Who in their right mind would use a public computer to post such personal information? I'd pick up the paperwork there and mail it in if I didn't have access to my own personal computer. Filing taxes through a public portal like a library computer is just begging someone to steal your identity and wreak havoc with your financial life.
As a former computer system administrator I firmly and wholeheartedly agree with Flightspan's point.
Pay an accountant to do your taxes. It's worth it. Saves me dozens of frustrating hours each year.
.
It's about time!
What a crock - just one more way government is getting too big for their britches. The last time I look those tax dollars are what pays the the way the. Not all of the forms available on the IRS site are fileable so you may have to run all over to get all the forms you need.
I agree. I don't have internet at home, I'm sure my employee doesn't want me to print off all of the forms and instructions on his dime and I'm 50 miles from the nearest IRS office. Way to stick it to the American people again when it's a government requirement.