Thursday letters: Don’t penalize paper tax returns

I have always filed my state and federal returns manually, and plan to continue to do so. I like doing my own calculations and researching applicable rules — instead of leaving it all up to a store-bought electronic program. I believe this even helped me dodge a bullet when the personal information of electronic taxpayers was stolen due to inadequate security on the part of the S.C. Revenue Department.

But taxpayers who file paper forms are now being treated unfairly.

In the past, I always received my state refund within three to four weeks. This year, manual refunds are being delayed 12 weeks or more. I believe this delay is designed to pressure manual filers to change to electronic. I think this (unwritten?) policy is at the least poorly timed. Twelve weeks to validate a couple of pages of income information is nothing short of incompetence. Tax filings should be handled first come first served — no matter the method used to file.

Lexington