E-file Frenzy

Do you remember the good ole days where you would have a friend or family member who thought they knew tax returns show you how to fill out your returns. You would then, armed with a ton of energy and ambition ready to tackle your own returns, wait until 11:50 pm on April 15th and drive to the post office in order to hand your package to the post office by midnight so it would get postmarked correctly and the ENORMOUS dreadful event would then be over for another year. If someone would have told me fifteen years ago that one day I would file my taxes on my computer and never leave the house I believe I would have felt deprived of the annual trip to the post office. How else would I get to know the postmaster at my local office if I did not see them in mid April every year?

In fact we are as a nation headed in that very direction and in 2008 almost 60% of this country filed their returns via e-file. We crossed the halfway mark in 2005 (just six short years after the beginning of the program) but hit the highest point of 57.8% in 2008. This number is projected to be over 60% in 2009. Do we really trust these programs? Do we really like to be online that much? Have we become too lazy for the "old school" train of thought? Maybe we need to reconnect with our local postmaster again this coming year. As for me, any tax returns I prepare will be with a pen and a calculator and delivered promptly at midnight to the post office on April 15th.