It's February and tax season is upon us all. It is a busy time for a public library as people desperate for one tax form or another come in, confident that they will find it there. At the risk of showing my age, I can remember when forms were easy to find - at the post office, the DMV, federal offices of all kinds, local and state offices, even the liquor store! Those days are long gone. Between the various branches and levels of government trying to move to paperless filing and reducing their costs and the chore that providing forms is, the sources for forms has dwindled down to libraries and tax services. The easy excuse nowadays is that these forms are available online.
And that is why libraries still continue to offer the forms. Yes, the forms are available online, and the websites for forms are fairly easy to navigate. Yet, there is a presumption on the government's side - that everyone owns a computer or has easy access to one. We in the library biz know this is not accurate. Those who need access to forms the most are the least likely to have ready access to a computer. People don't all have friends and family that can help them find the right form. And those instruction booklets. Try using them online - it takes a sophisticated computer user to get at the information they need.
So that is why libraries are a good fit for offering the forms. Libraries are here to help people find information that they need. Librarians are working to help guide people to the right source, to show people how to use the internet, how to fill out forms. So come on in - we'll be there to help you find the form you need. Try our website - we have easy links to the online form sources. We are there to help with everything except giving you tax advice - that is for a different professional. Of course we can help you find a list of those too.
America: who really pays the taxes, by Donald L. Barlett
JK Lasser's 1001 deductions and tax breaks: your complete guide to everything deductible
No comments:
Post a Comment