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This is one of several reasons why I file on paper. I caught a glimpse of how the sausages were made once, thanks to family connections. That was enough. It'

This is one of several reasons why I file on paper. I caught a glimpse of how the sausages were made once, thanks to family connections. That was enough. It's completely reasonable to assume that the IRS is operating on technology that is at least 5 years out of date, and possibly as much as 40. They have just barely enough resources to serve their overall departmental mandate. This is only partially on the IRS itself, and also on the politically motivated processes that intentionally underfund it, especially with regard to taxpayer assistance, guidance, or convenience. If not this year, next year, and if not then, call the office of the nearest archdiocese to investigate out who was responsible for the miracle of the unborked servers, and the miracle of the balancing of the surge traffic.

Someone1234 9y ago
You never really explained why you file on paper. Yes, the IRS has outdated tech', but that within itself isn't really an argument for why you needed to switch to filing on paper after you learned "how the sausages were made." Plus aren't paper filings just typed in by hand, and turned into eFilings anyway? Both go through the same pipeline after a point.
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  I didn't switch. I never started. Paper filings are converted to electronic records, but they are also scanned, and the images retained for some amount of time before being destroyed. They might also do as much OCR as they are able, and ask a human to verify or correct, rather than do all the data entry by hand. If the internal digitization system goes down, well, the envelope still has a dated postmark on it. That makes it not my problem. Securing the pipeline between employee workstation and database server is likewise not my problem. I don't want to explain further, because I don't want to discourage other people from e-filing, and it would contain some assumptions that I cannot verify. And it also contains the personal assumption that I will almost always wait until the last weekend before the filing deadline to even look at a form, because of a procrastination habit.
- fma 9y ago
  You need to postmark your forms by the due date, not have it in the hands of the IRS. If it takes a few days to get in the mail, a few days (weeks?) for it to be scanned and OCR...that's less days left to audit you. That is one of my understanding why someone may file by paper.
justherefortart 9y ago
I filed early, this is the first time I've ever done it electronically. It took my forms and send me a success update within 15 minutes (did about a week ago since I owed a small Kia). The even nicer part was scheduling my payment to auto debit today (17th). Instead of worrying about an enormous check floating out there in the Postal Mail realm. I filed my state the old school way since they don't allow free electronic submissions. To my surprise they cashed the check in 2 days. Although, it's Oklahoma so they're more broke than I am :-)
blahedo 9y ago
I file on paper, as I always have, because a) I absolutely refuse to pay money to file my taxes, and b) I especially refuse to pay money to companies that lobby for taxes to be more complicated. There are free e-filing solutions, but not for my income range, and also last I checked (this might be a year or two out of date now) the various state-level agencies do not play well with the free e-filing. And the paper forms are so easy! The hard part is sometimes figuring out whether you qualify for a particular thing or what a particular piece of income counts as, but that's more or less just as difficult even with software. Actually filling out the paperwork? Almost restful by comparison.

Someone1234 9y ago

You never really explained why you file on paper. Yes, the IRS has outdated tech', but that within itself isn't really an argument for why you needed to switch to filing on paper after you learned "how the sausages were made." Plus aren't paper filings just typed in by hand, and turned into eFilings anyway? Both go through the same pipeline after a point.

logfromblammo 9y ago
I didn't switch. I never started. Paper filings are converted to electronic records, but they are also scanned, and the images retained for some amount of time before being destroyed. They might also do as much OCR as they are able, and ask a human to verify or correct, rather than do all the data entry by hand. If the internal digitization system goes down, well, the envelope still has a dated postmark on it. That makes it not my problem. Securing the pipeline between employee workstation and database server is likewise not my problem. I don't want to explain further, because I don't want to discourage other people from e-filing, and it would contain some assumptions that I cannot verify. And it also contains the personal assumption that I will almost always wait until the last weekend before the filing deadline to even look at a form, because of a procrastination habit.
fma 9y ago
You need to postmark your forms by the due date, not have it in the hands of the IRS. If it takes a few days to get in the mail, a few days (weeks?) for it to be scanned and OCR...that's less days left to audit you. That is one of my understanding why someone may file by paper.

justherefortart 9y ago

I filed early, this is the first time I've ever done it electronically. It took my forms and send me a success update within 15 minutes (did about a week ago since I owed a small Kia). The even nicer part was scheduling my payment to auto debit today (17th). Instead of worrying about an enormous check floating out there in the Postal Mail realm. I filed my state the old school way since they don't allow free electronic submissions. To my surprise they cashed the check in 2 days. Although, it's Oklahoma so they're more broke than I am :-)

blahedo 9y ago

I file on paper, as I always have, because a) I absolutely refuse to pay money to file my taxes, and b) I especially refuse to pay money to companies that lobby for taxes to be more complicated. There are free e-filing solutions, but not for my income range, and also last I checked (this might be a year or two out of date now) the various state-level agencies do not play well with the free e-filing. And the paper forms are so easy! The hard part is sometimes figuring out whether you qualify for a particular thing or what a particular piece of income counts as, but that's more or less just as difficult even with software. Actually filling out the paperwork? Almost restful by comparison.