E-taxes costs IRS workers their jobs

The government is front and center in developing e-government in many ways, and one of them is increasing the ease of filing your taxes online. More than 50 percent of taxpayers now use e-Taxes instead of snail mail.

That's great news, for sure, but it's also a problem. The IRS is giving 1,400 workers the boot because their jobs have been taken over by the computer.

In a letter signed by several members of Congress, a special inspector general was asked to give employment preference to employees facing layoffs as he builds his staff to oversee a federal bailout program.

Turns out, the IRS staffers are slated to be laid off by September at Massachusetts facilities. With more Americans filing tax forms electronically, fewer people are needed to handle paper returns. So the promise of a lifetime federal job isn't exactly true, and the growth of electronic services in the federal government definitely has a downside.

For more on the downside of e-Taxes:
- check out the second item in this Washington Post article