Convenience Fee to Pay for Technology via the Same Technology

You have to pay the unemployment cost of the poor schmuck you just cut out of the loop...and buy the machine that's replacing him...

The goal isn't to make sense. The goal is to make cents, about 200 of them per customer.

Well, you're behind the times. Fee's been dumped. Maybe monitoring Twitter and Facebook might get you up to speed.

Makes about as much sense as the IRS encouraging citizens to file their tax returns on line to save the IRS money then charging $10.00(?) per tax return to do it.

As far as I know, the IRS hasn't backed off of that.

My understanding was that $10 fee is charged by the companies that provide on-line filing services not the IRS itself. That being said, why doesn't the IRS provide a portal for the general public to submit the tax returns? The state of Maryland runs its own on-line tax preparation and filing program. Of course, since most state tax returns are generally a simple derivative of the federal return, that makes their jobs generally easier.

Last year I tried to file my Federal tax returns electronically, using the links on the IRS web site. I found that the IRS required me to use specific software, and that there were fees for using it. Further research into that software did not convince me that it would make my filing any easier or error-free. So I ditched the idea and mailed in another paper return. I'll check again this year, but I have little faith in Government programs.