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As if paper didn’t already have enough trouble from its old nemesis, scissors, along comes a new threat: e-filing.

A legislative mandate enacted in 2006 directs preparers of Louisiana individual income tax returns due in 2008 to file at least 30% of those returns electronically—otherwise known as e-filing. The law only applies to preparers who filed 100 or more individual returns the previous calendar year.

Why e-filing? Legislators and the General Accounting Office like it because it stands to save a bundle of money. Taxpayers like it because refunds come much faster. Tax preparers like it because it’s easier—though not everyone’s buying in willingly.

Since the mandate is new, there’s no penalty for not complying—not yet. But the law ramps up the requirement over the next few years: For returns due in 2010, 60% must be e-filed. For 2012, it’s 90%.

The state’s e-filing mandate mirrors a similar federal push, though the Internal Revenue Service’s effort is complicated by a drop in the number of taxpayers using its e-filing system from one year to the next. Nevertheless, tax preparers say paper is on its way out in most if not all cases.

Paul Ramsey, a partner with Bennett & Bennett Associates, has no problem with that. He says the new requirement is nothing to worry about since his firm already does about 80% of its returns electronically out of a total of around 1,400 individual returns annually. His first taste of e-filing occurred in the mid-1990s.

“A lot of people were afraid of it when electronic filing first came out,” he says. “Now a lot of people are comfortable with it. It speeds up your refund.”

Preparing and submitting returns electronically also cuts down on mistakes and is, on the whole, more efficient, Ramsey says. The only downside he’s seen so far is when refunds are held up the state’s request for additional documentation, which in the old days would have been stapled or paper-clipped to a physical return. Clients who filed in multiple states, for instance, are asked for copies of those other returns.

While the system isn’t perfect, it works well enough, and Ramsey doesn’t hesitate to file his own return electronically.

“I would say it’s generally kind of smooth,” he says. “It’s the thing of the future, I’m sure. I’ve heard there’s a few people out there who don’t want to mess with it.”

Terry W. Bennett, a tax preparer who is not connected to Bennett & Bennett except that his father founded the firm in 1940, says his own company does roughly 1,800 returns a year and e-files at least 1,500 of them. You’d be surprised how many firms don’t e-file because of clients—mainly older clients—who want to see bulk, he says. Bennett is an e-filing convert who sees no downside to it.

“It’s mainly the old people who don’t want to do it,” he says. “The average taxpayer below age 50 wants to do it. It solves a lot of problems.”

State tax returns normally “piggyback” on federal returns, Bennett says. Once they’re transmitted, the preparer gets a response back in less than 24 hours that they’ve been received. E-filing means problems are solved quickly compared to the old way. For instance, if a spouse’s Social Security number is missing on a joint return, it won’t be accepted.

Bennett says he’s been e-filing 10 years, though in the beginning the types of filings accepted were extremely limited, though that’s changed over time. Preparers only recently started doing corporate filings electronically, he says.

“Now there’s very few things you can’t do,” Bennett says.

Of course, not everyone gets a refund. Some pay. Tara Cunningham, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Revenue, says a misapprehension over payments created suspicion about e-filing that the department attempted to tamp down by issuing a clarification: Money owed by taxpayers who e-file doesn’t have to be paid immediately, despite the rumors, she says. Payment deadlines are the same, whether a return is e-filed or paper-filed.

E-filing is faster, more efficient, largely error-proof and therefore stands to save money, she says. All the same, she concedes that some people are more comfortable with electronic filing than others, and not everyone is enthused about the new rule.

“We still get lot of questions from CPAs regarding the mandate,” Cunningham says. “Some people have concerns. Some people love it.”

Jo Ellen Kearny does not “love” e-filing. She e-filed exactly zero returns last year, out of the piles and piles she prepared for Daigrepont & Brian, where she’s a partner. For one thing, it’s time-consuming to enter everything that’s required—what with the 1099s and W2s and all—and thus costs the client more. With the old method, such documents are mailed with the return.

That said, Kearny’s firm is shooting for 100% electronic filing this year. And she’s not a total Luddite. Kearny concedes that, because of the overwhelming complexity of today’s tax laws, preparing all but the most elementary returns is only possible with computer software—though computers are probably what made tax laws so complicated in the first place. But Kearny, who says she hasn’t prepared a return totally by hand since around 1983, sees at least one advantage compared to a paper return: Making changes is much easier.

“Before when somebody called and said ‘I want to change something,’ I’d have to shoot them,” she says.

Kearny sees the writing on wall and knows paper is headed for the wastebasket of history. That doesn’t mean she has to like it, or jump on the bandwagon this very minutes. The paper option still exists—at least for a few more years.

“I can tell you this,” Kearny says. “I am not filing my return electronically.”