Heads up future tycoons! If you plan to be a billionaire some day AND you also happen to dislike technology… I have some bad news. From now on, whenever an individual owes the Internal Revenue Service more than $99,999,999, he or she will be required to make that payment electronically via direct deposit. In other words, paper checks will no longer be accepted.
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Why would the IRS make this seemingly-random decision? I mean, money is money, right? It shouldn't matter if it comes as a check, in cash, or through an electronic transaction. Well, apparently the tax agency's check processing equipment is not equipped to process checks that have more than eight digits. So prior to today, all nine digit checks (or greater) had to be processed by a human being. And, as you might imagine, human beings (especially those who choose to work at a government agency like the IRS) tend to make mistakes. On several occasions, very large checks have been lost, mishandled, damaged or just simply not entered correctly.
If you're thinking that no one would ever send a paper check for a payment that large, you are wrong. So far in 2015 alone, the IRS has received 14 checks with amounts due over $99.99 million.
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So this is a good news/bad news situation. The good news is if you're writing this large of a check, it means you have made an absolutely insane amount of money. The bad news is, you're gonna have to take few minutes to familiarize yourself with the world of electronic payments.
And while we're on the subject of extremely large checks, here are two of my all time favorite check-related CNW stories:
1. What's The Biggest Check Ever Written In History?
2. This Is What A $974 Million Divorce Settlement Check Looks Like
