Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency announced a new cost-cutting suggestion for the federal government: eliminating paper checks.
“Deleting paper checks would save at least $750 million per year,” the DOGE X account posted Sunday.
DOGE noted that the Treasury Department processed 116 million paper checks during fiscal 2024.
DOGE also found $25 million in tax refunds that were delayed or lost due to “returned or expired checks.”
A post on…paper checks!
-Treasury processed 116 million paper checks in FY2024.
-In FY2023, $25 billion in tax refunds were delayed or lost due to returned or expired checks.
-Treasury maintains a physical lockbox network to collect checks for tax (IRS), passport (State…— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) February 17, 2025
Last week, Musk defended the myriad of cost-cutting proposals and government waste found by DOGE.
Cutting paper and digitizing practices have been a growing practice in private, corporate America, and modern banking.
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In a recent report by global management consulting firm Bain & Company, it found that some inefficiency at North American banks was due to “branch-heavy footprints” and “an overreliance on paper check payments.”
One of Musk’s first business ventures was co-founding X.com, a direct online bank, which later formed PayPal, which revolutionized e-commerce and banking.