Something about this press release from IRS, describing the rationale for their special user fees, strikes me as bordering on insane.

IRS User Fee Program

They try to make the case that people and entities that get special services from IRS should reimburse the government for the costs for IRS to provide those special services. 

What goes unsaid is the fact that the only reason people need to request these “special services” are the facts that IRS requires us all to do all of these complicated things and, with the assistance of our Rulers in DC, have done everything they can to make everything as confusing as possible.  Charging victims of our convoluted tax system special extra fees in order to explain how to comply with the rules is crazy.

Similarly, as in the news release, is the issue of PTINs for us tax pros.  It’s as if it’s some kind of luxury benefit that we receive by having a PTIN, so we should pay IRS for the “benefit” of literally being forced to reapply for a renewal of our PTIN every single year.  I’m sure other tax pros would agree with me that we liked it better under the old rules, where we obtained a PTIN in order to protect the privacy of our SSNs and then we just used that same number from that point on, without having to pay a new fee every year.  What’s next?  An annual application and fee for every American to renew our Social Security numbers?