taxation

Scraping the bottom of the barrel of topics, I found something amusing in filing my tax return. I've used TurboTax for years. One of its idiosyncracies is a rebate that covers the cost of eFiling the federal return--idiosyncratic, to the extent they make you pay first, then get a rebate for the same amount, instead of the more efficient alternative of simply letting you file one return for free, but perhaps it's an IRS requirement, which wouldn't surprise me too much, given that government agencies are not always characterized by efficiency. (to give an actual example of IRS inefficiency, I watched a cable show yesterday that detailed the Mustang Ranch fiasco, when the IRS seized a legal Nevada brothel and tried to first sell it, then tried running it, and finally sold it for less than it could have collected in the first place by settling with the original owner, who turned out to be a silent partner with the firm that wound up buying it at about 1/4 the price the IRS originally wanted.)

this year, Intuit, the firm that manufactures TurboTax, streamlined the rebate process a bit by providing an online rebate form, which you fill out online, but then need to print it and mail it rather than merely submitting it online--another IRS requirement perhaps? Anyway, I'm about to print the form, and the second line of the form says, in bold type: "Print this page prior to mailing." Maybe the IRS required it, to prevent people mailing in an envelope with nothing in it?