This year, Virginia has abandoned the previous single on-line tax filing system called iFile that worked splendidly. In its stead, Virginia has now adopted a hodgepodge of not one, not two, but six different systems, and all six have totally different eligibility requirements.
For example, users who have already filed their federal tax returns are prohibited from using three of the six options. And for the three that they are allowed to use, they have to enter their federal data all over again. Even worse, people between the ages of 58 and 65 with incomes over $58,000 do not qualify for any of the six options!
The Virginia Department of Taxation's web site has the audacity to exhort users: "Find out more about this exciting new program...." What hogwash! I called the Virginia Department of Taxation to find out the rationale behind this change. The representative could only spout the standard line that the legislature passed the bill and the governor signed it, adding only that it was an attempt to emulate the federal on-line filing system.
Unfortunately, Virginia seems to have overlooked one major element: the federal system includes a program called Free File Fillable Forms which allows everyone to file electronically with no restrictions on age, income, or anything else. Where is Virginia's equivalent? Missing in action. Oops!
I have been filing electronically for several years now, but no more. This year, I am no longer eligible for any of the free programs, and I refuse to pay a fee just for the "privilege" of filing electronically. Instead, I am now driven to revert to paper where the only "fee" is a 44-cent postage stamp. I guess that this is supposed to be someone's distorted idea of progress, but in reality it represents a huge step backwards.
Virginia's legislature has created a patchwork crazy-quilt "system" that lacks the redeeming feature of an all-inclusive option akin to the federal Free File Fillable Forms. It also excludes a substantial portion of the population and thus has the perverse effect of discouraging electronic filing for those people.
In short, Virginia has managed to incorporate the worst elements of the federal program while excluding the single best feature. So tell me again, Republicans, exactly how state governments are so much better?
[Postscript: I e-mailed the essential contents of this article to both my state senator and my representative to the House of Delegates asking them to please address the flaws in the system. Both legislators and their respective staffs declined even to reply. Apparently in the eyes of Republicans, if you are not a fat-cat businessman laden with cash contributions, you do not merit a response.
At the very least, this scenario provides just another example that belies the Republican shibboleth that small government is responsive government.]
[Post Postscript: Will wonders never cease! I just checked the Virginia Department of Taxation web site to download tax forms for 2011. In the instruction manual, on the first page after the title page, the third paragraph reads as follows:
Free File Fillable Virginia Forms (New e-File option) - Online versions of the Virginia resident return and schedules that allow you to enter tax information just as you would if you were completing a paper form and then submit the return electronically through e-File.
Eureka! This year, it appears that Virginia will provide free file fillable forms just like the federal government has offered for years. It took Virginia at least a year longer than it should have, but better late than never, I guess.] [Added 8 January 2012]
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