Cut the fax: The IRS is stuck in the past

Published April 12, 2026 7:00am ET



America’s tax system is powered by infrastructure that too often belongs to another era — and small businesses are bearing the consequences. Across the IRS, outdated technology, paper-based workflows, and incomplete digital systems slow processing, create confusion, and delay critical refunds that businesses rely on to operate and grow.

In some cases, that even includes relying on fax machines to transmit sensitive taxpayer information, a striking example of a much larger modernization failure.

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