The IRS Must Be Mostly Automated, I Think... [View all]

I did my state and federal taxes yesterday. As usual, I used TurboTax, simply because I have used it for many years. Also, as usual, the process went smoothly and didn't use up a huge amount of my time, since I keep my financial records in order all year.

What surprised me a little, though, was the almost immediate initial processing after I filed online, through Intuit. Further, the taxes I owed were snatched from my bank account almost immediately. Apparently, no human beings were involved in any of that. Thank goodness I didn't have any need to communicate with an actual IRS employee. Things would probably have gone differently.

The State of Minnesota, on the other hand, took a few hours to notify of the receipt and acceptance of my filing.

Does that mean I trust the US Government? Nope. I simply trust that its automated features tend to work just find, so far. I do my best to avoid the need to interact with individual employees. They always seem to be the sources of most issues I have had in the past. Not their fault, but that's how it is.