Why I still have a fax machine

It’s not nostalgia. The IRS still prefers it.

Evening.

Quick one before the week starts. This one’s fun.

For almost a year and a half now, I’ve been going analog.

Not all the way. I still run a business, answer email, and use the tools that save me time.

But more and more of my day happens on paper. Notebooks. Field Journals, Index cards. A pen that actually has to touch the page.

I’ve even been practicing my handwriting. On purpose. Like it’s third grade all over again.

For a long time, I couldn’t fully explain why. I just knew it felt right.

Then last month, at a mastermind in Connecticut, they handed me a book called Return to Real by Ryan Levesque.

I read it and thought, “So that’s what I’ve been doing.”

His big idea is simple. As AI makes everything faster, cheaper, and more artificial, the real stuff becomes more valuable.

A handwritten note. A real conversation. A story from an actual person.

That book answered a lot of questions I’d been carrying around for a year and a half.

Paper makes me slow down. An index card only holds one idea, so I have to decide which idea matters. A notebook doesn’t ping me. It just waits.

Now here’s the funny part.

You know who never went all digital?

The IRS. 

People ask me all the time, “Carlos, why do you still have a fax number?”

It’s on my business card. It’s on my website. Some folks look at it like I’m still carrying a pager.

Here’s why. The IRS still runs on fax. A lot of the IRS units we deal with take documents by fax, and they treat it as a trusted, secure way to get sensitive taxpayer paperwork into their hands.

When I need documents in front of the right IRS person, the fax machine is often the best way to do it.

So that number stays.

Turns out I’m not the only one who never fully left analog. The government’s been sitting there the whole time.

This week, try one thing on paper. A grocery list. A thank-you note. Tomorrow’s to-do list on a single index card. See how it feels.

Talk soon,

Carlos "Field Notes" Samaniego
TaxDebtConsultant.com
Office 909-570-1103
Fax: 909-586-9190

P.S. If there’s an IRS letter still sitting unopened on your counter, go ahead and book an appointment at TaxDebtTriage.com. Or, if you’re old school like me and still have a fax machine, fax me at 909-586-9190. I’ll know you read the whole email.