Convenient for Whom?
Knowing it's coming up on the end of January and another big chunk of money must go out the window to pay for Real Property taxes, I signed onto my Bank's billpay tonight, 4 days before they're due. Normally my bank can send a transfer and pay a bill in one day. NOT with governmental agencies, it seems. The bank must cut a paper check and MAIL it to the taxing authority, which would mean my taxes... late. No problem. Each tax bill has a URL for online payments. So I pull up the nifty little website. It lets me search by last name and Voila! there's our tax bill.. Click the little box to pay in full. Total will be... WTF?!?!?! $29.34 CONVENIENCE FEE?!?!? The taxpayer goes to your designated website, accesses online account information, can CLICK to pay the current bill and it costs the taxpayer $29.34?!?!?!
Here's one of those crystal clear examples of what's fiscally wrong in government today -- A LACK OF SIMPLE COMMON SENSE! There is a system set up whereby the taxpayer can just ZAP the money from his/her bank account to their actual account at the governmental taxing authority. Instead, fiscally frugal taxpayer that I am, I will not pay this alleged convenience fee (whose convenience I ask). Instead, I pull out my manual checkbook, dust it off and write checks by hand to pay my real estate taxes. I hand-copy the account numbers into the memo area of the check (opportunity for human error). Then I copy the invoice for my files, tear off the remittance copy, place it and my check into an envelope, place a postage stamp on the envelope and take it out to the mailbox where the postman (a government employee) will pick it up; it will be run through numerous USPS systems and personnel and ultimately delivered to the tax office. Once received in the mail room at the tax office, it will be sorted and handled and delivered to some inbox where yet another someone will be assigned to enter the receipt into the tax record (another opportunity for human error) and match up the amounts on the check with the amount owed... ad nauseum. I guess it keeps people employed...
Our governments need to adopt real-world financial logic. Having the taxpayer click a little box on a form, paying instantly by credit card, assuring faster receipt of funds from taxpayer to taxing agency should be FREE. It's financially sound. It's efficient. It's simple. ... BUT... that's not the way we run our governments.. AND it's but one of the reasons we have a multi-trillion dollar national debt...
Here's one of those crystal clear examples of what's fiscally wrong in government today -- A LACK OF SIMPLE COMMON SENSE! There is a system set up whereby the taxpayer can just ZAP the money from his/her bank account to their actual account at the governmental taxing authority. Instead, fiscally frugal taxpayer that I am, I will not pay this alleged convenience fee (whose convenience I ask). Instead, I pull out my manual checkbook, dust it off and write checks by hand to pay my real estate taxes. I hand-copy the account numbers into the memo area of the check (opportunity for human error). Then I copy the invoice for my files, tear off the remittance copy, place it and my check into an envelope, place a postage stamp on the envelope and take it out to the mailbox where the postman (a government employee) will pick it up; it will be run through numerous USPS systems and personnel and ultimately delivered to the tax office. Once received in the mail room at the tax office, it will be sorted and handled and delivered to some inbox where yet another someone will be assigned to enter the receipt into the tax record (another opportunity for human error) and match up the amounts on the check with the amount owed... ad nauseum. I guess it keeps people employed...
Our governments need to adopt real-world financial logic. Having the taxpayer click a little box on a form, paying instantly by credit card, assuring faster receipt of funds from taxpayer to taxing agency should be FREE. It's financially sound. It's efficient. It's simple. ... BUT... that's not the way we run our governments.. AND it's but one of the reasons we have a multi-trillion dollar national debt...
I so feel your pain here. I too had to dust off the checkbook and send them by snail mail due to my refusal of paying those fees.
ReplyDeleteI don't even pay our utility bill online because they ask for a FEE. Ugh. So snail mail it is for THAT bill.