But if you’re playing the game “Let’s see how much I can fudge my 1040 and get away with it” (which, unfortunately, is a very popular game), then yeah I can see how a letter from the IRS would be distressing.
It doesn’t matter. The IRS makes mistakes too.
But they’ll never admit to a mistake until after your clock has been cleaned.
Not to mention the tax code is so insanely complicated (printed out, it fills an entire building) until not even the IRS understands all of it. Even by their own admission, if you call them and ask for help, you have a 20% chance of getting the wrong answer. Which won’t matter because if they catch their mistake later, you’re still the one on the hook.
And they’re the only agency in the world where if you decide to fight their decision, you need to pay first, then fight. If you win, eventually they’ll refund. No interest or penalties of course.
My brother fell into that trap – he fought a decision, and it took three years to win. So they said, fine, you don’t have to pay the original tax. But you do have to pay the penalty, the interest on the tax, the interest on the penalty, for not having paid the tax up-front during the time you were fighting. That turned out to be more than the original tax he was fighting over.
Let’s face it – the IRS is about as close to legalized organized crime as you could ask for.
@fritzoid said, about 4 hours ago
But if you’re playing the game “Let’s see how much I can fudge my 1040 and get away with it” (which, unfortunately, is a very popular game), then yeah I can see how a letter from the IRS would be distressing.
It doesn’t matter. The IRS makes mistakes too.
But they’ll never admit to a mistake until after your clock has been cleaned.
Not to mention the tax code is so insanely complicated (printed out, it fills an entire building) until not even the IRS understands all of it. Even by their own admission, if you call them and ask for help, you have a 20% chance of getting the wrong answer. Which won’t matter because if they catch their mistake later, you’re still the one on the hook.
And they’re the only agency in the world where if you decide to fight their decision, you need to pay first, then fight. If you win, eventually they’ll refund. No interest or penalties of course.
My brother fell into that trap – he fought a decision, and it took three years to win. So they said, fine, you don’t have to pay the original tax. But you do have to pay the penalty, the interest on the tax, the interest on the penalty, for not having paid the tax up-front during the time you were fighting. That turned out to be more than the original tax he was fighting over.
Let’s face it – the IRS is about as close to legalized organized crime as you could ask for.