Has anyone yet discovered that the Colorado Department of Revenue no longer provides paper versions of its state tax publications and forms? The state now requires all of us to file our state tax returns electronically by computer over the Internet. This decision raises questions.
How are people without Internet access at home supposed to file their returns? Many thousands of taxpayers are too poor to afford home computers or Internet access, so the state is not serving them well when it denies them paper publications and forms which they can complete and mail with a 49-cent stamp.
The Cortez library provides Internet computers, but it provides only one copy of tax publications which can be read only in the library and never checked out. If you copy tax forms or publications off a computer, you pay a quarter for every page over the first five pages.
How many taxpayers will crowd library computers trying to complete their returns, and how long will it take them to scan publications on a computer screen to learn how to fill out their forms? Also, how much privacy will they have handling their financial information on a public library computer?
Even local accountants don’t have paper copies of Colorado tax forms and publications. All they can do is compose your return with a tax program and file it for you, charging fees for their services. Again, how are poor people supposed to pay for these services?
I have never seen public statements from the Colorado Department of Revenue broadcast over radio or TV informing taxpayers of this change. The state serves us poorly imposing such an inconvenient system without notice. Reducing government costs of handling paper forms is admirable, but taxpayer circumstances are important also.
In this case, the state is considering only its own convenience and not taxpayer convenience. It has served us badly.
James F. Andrus
Cortez