Ms. Mundy,

I'm not unsympathetic to your frustration, but believe it or not this "little thing" is not necessarily a free or even cheap fix. Nothing in a bureaucracy ever is. This upgrade could very well be planned and awaiting implementation or funding. The fact that it hasn't been done yet, suggests to me that it's just not as simple as you think it is. Depending upon the backbone architecture of the hardware and software systems used to process the data, there could very well be thousands (and thousands) of hours of (not inexpensive) labor involved to make the necessary coding changes.

I'm not saying it rises to the level of a Y2K system overhaul, but it's not as simple as doing a little copy-editing in MS Word and then re-sending your updated document/article/web-post to your boss/editor/web-editor/etc.

So, you have to ask yourself if you really believe this monstrous potential outlay of your tax dollars, and potential increase in your taxes owed, is really "worth it" to make you feel just a little bit warmer and fuzzier about... paying your taxes. And for you, the answer may be yes. For me, the answer is no.