Just wondering: if you efile your tax return, you have not signed it. So, if the IRS finds an error in it, are you off the hook? If you don’t ign a legal document, can you be held responsible for errors in said document?
You consistently have some of the most bizarre topics to post, I’ll say that for you.
Why do you think that a physical signature is necessary?
It sounds like you’ve never done this before.
There is an eSignature attached to all efiling.
When I e-filed, the system asked me to register (what in effect was) a PIN. It also alerted me that this PIN, once entered, was going to be considered my electronic signature. It told me this twice.
Seems that the system probably meets whatever safeguards a court might find as “reasonable”, but then, I’m not a lawyer.
I’ve been e-filing for several years now. IIRC the first time I did so, I had to mail in a signature form, but I think that was for my Georgia state tax, not federal. As others have pointed out, there is an e-signature/PIN generated when you e-file.
I do a little work for a web based tax return filing company. There are two options for signing your federal return. The first is an actual signature form, 8453-OL, that you print out, sign and mail to the IRS. The other is what is called a self select pin. You need to enter your BDay, e-mail address and prior year AGI. That seems to me to be enough unique information to qualify as a signature by any reasonable standard.
In the late 90s, and I don’t have a cite, a federal law was passed that allowed for electronic signatures to be the equivalent of physical signatures.
In all actuality it was a great law, as it allowed for online banking and the like. Under your idea, I could clean out my bank account online and then claim that I never put ink to paper to authorize it. Give me my money back!
I think I remember the signing ceremony for that bill. Didn’t Clinton sign the bill with an electronic signature?
Yes, but it was only symbolic.
There’s a chicken and egg problem. Until he signed the bill into law, electronic signatures could not be used, so an electronic signing of the bill would be invalid. As the above article says, he first signed the bill in the normal ink on paper manner, then he re-signed it electronically.
Yes. And as someone who has screwed up his tax return a few times, I can tell you they generally contact you and ask you to fix it.