Public/Private Service Arrangements

I am happy to say that, at the beginning of last week, I had three pressing tasks which had to be completed on a deadline, and that today I finished the last of the three, all of which were done in time.  This last task was mailing in my tax returns for both federal and state/local governments.

Yes, I mailed in my tax returns.  In order to file electronically, one needs to set up an account with a private, third-party provider, and I really don't want to navigate various websites for various programs of varying dubiety.  How many of these services are bait-and-switch providers who will end up charging for nominally free services?  I really don't feel like having to read more fine print than even the Internal Revenue Service puts you through.  

In contrast, one of the other tasks I had to accomplish was filing a vision test with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles in conjunction with a mail-in license renewal.  The state gives you some time to get this done, and with the pandemic, I admit I had been procrastinating.  One factor is that the DMV doesn't allow walk-ins, and with my work schedule, making an appointment would have been difficult.  The DMV does partner with vision test providers, and I discovered that the local chemists' shop, an easy trip on foot, accepted walk-ins.  In five minutes, I was there, and in five more minutes, the charming clerk administered the shockingly easy (the vision requirement is 20/40) test:

"Can you read line six on the chart?"

"That's it?  That seems too easy."

(Laughing) "OK, read line eleven."

So I did...

After the actual test, I paid the fee and the clerk informed me that the shop would file all of the information with the DMV, that my work had finished with the actual examination.

There's a contrast between two public/private service arrangements- one in which the private provider adds layers of complication to a task which should be strictly between taxpayer and government, and one in which the provider does the bulk of the actual work.  I know which one I prefer.  I usually post about my attitudes toward taxes on April 15, the usual Tax Day, though one which often doesn't constitute the real deadline.  I think I shall this year as well.  Today, I just wanted to talk about one arrangement done right, and one which isn't quite ideal.