[lbo-talk] another brick in that neolib wall

[Andy F]

If you have had the good fortune of being able to file your taxes with
a 1040EZ the past several years, you've also had the convenience of
Telefile -- you call up, plug in the same numbers you would on the
form, and you get your refund.  Piece o' cake, and free too.  And they
cancelled it, supposedly due variously to lack of use or costs of
administration (vs. paper forms?), with the promise of free electronic
alternatives.

So those free alternatives they offered on their website were all
private services.  Of course, there are new rules (they may not have
been approved yet) allowing tax preparers to do what they will with
your info -- no doubt with your well informed consent.

I'd figured the demise of Telefile must have had something to do with
the horror of government providing services that compete with private
profit, and a column in Wired (my roommate's, not mine!) just
confirmed that some funding bill passed last year forbids the IRS from
doing precisely that.

And why did I have to learn about this from freakin' Wired?

--
Andy