Remember the promises that you would be able to submit your income tax return on a postcard? What they didn’t say was that it would take a whole deck of postcards.
Last year the main Form 1040 was two dense sides of paper, this year it was split among seven different forms, one of which has only three lines counting the name line. All the forms are one-sided but are printed on two sides to say the back side is supposed to be blank, except the new 1040 itself, which has two half sides instead of putting everything on the same side. The instructions say you don’t have to submit the new additional forms but you didn’t in the old days either – you just left those lines blank on the main form. This design must have come from the manufacturers of paper and photocopiers with support from the U.S. Postal Service. Even if you do it online, there are more pages to view.
One note of hilarity is that the forms say to look in the instructions for the Paperwork Reduction Act Notice. I couldn’t find it, and it’s not in the index. Maybe nobody could write one with a straight face.
If government is serious about reducing paperwork and environmental effects, going back to one page for the 1040 would be a good start. The N.H. interest and dividends tax form could also be reduced from five pages to one by putting all the lines to fill in on the same page with the instructions placed separately.
ROY SCHWEIKER
Concord