The IRS Doesn’t Want You Writing Them $100 Million Checks

“You’re trying to write a $100 million check to the government and they’re treating you like dirt?” he said. “These are your customers. If this was Las Vegas, they’d give you the suite and a bottle of champagne for free.”

That’s Grover Norquist, commenting on the news that the IRS will stop accepting checks of $100 million or more starting next year because most commercial banks can’t cash checks that large.

The IRS says that nearly 90 percent of individuals file their taxes electronically — including me! I had scheduled my estimated tax payment (due tomorrow!) last month, so I woke up this morning to a bank alert notifying me that they had deducted a bunch of money from my bank account. All that money was gone, but I felt relieved more than anything; better to pay a chunk of my taxes now than get surprised with a big bill come next April!

But back to these mysterious ultra-rich people sending $100 million checks to the IRS. Why checks? What benefit is there to writing a check vs. filing electronically? Does anyone here have the answer?

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