Update On Taxgirl.com & "The Ban"

For those of you who can only access taxgirl.com from your home because of the ban by SmartFilter, here’s where things stand”
SmartFilter has banned my site – I have been notified of this by a few readers, including over at Roth & Co. The content is apparently too racy for the SmartFilter software. I guess it’s all of the talk about AMT and rebates… far too exciting.
At any rate, the software is marketed by a company called Secure Computing, with headquarters in Reston, VA. I contacted their headquarters a few weeks back and left a detailed message which was not returned. Today, I called again and was told to call the St. Paul, Minnesota office. I was then transferred to… yet another machine where I left yet another message.
If your company uses SmartFilter software, I don’t know what to tell you. SmartFilter purports to keep “the workplace free from offensive content.” Now, I realize that some of you find paying taxes offensive. But other than that, I can’t imagine what’s going on – unless my site is much more salacious than I believe it to be. Perhaps the folks at Secure Computing find tax a little more exciting than I do? Hard to believe.
I’ll keep you posted. Hopefully, I’ll hear back from the company (though I’m not betting on it).
Thanks for reading and keeping me posted when you can’t get your taxgirl.com fix! Remember that you can always subscribe to my feed via email so that you don’t miss a yummy morsel of tax bloggity goodness.

Kelly Phillips Erb

Kelly Phillips Erb is a tax attorney, tax writer, and podcaster.

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