Surely you guys have noticed, if you watch any TV at all, that there are all these ads for Tax Attorneys for helping people with IRS problems. I don't remember seeing them until about maybe 5 years ago. The conclusion I'm drawn to is that the IRS is auditing an ever increasing number of citizens and you are nuts if you think they are accurate in their efforts to get "their" money. Joe Louis, aka the Brown Bomber got into trouble with the IRS for giving a boxing demonstration and donating all of the proceeds to a charitable organization to benefit navy families after Pearl Harbor was attacked and the IRS hit him for over one million dollars and they hounded him til his death.
I too am in a fight with the IRS and found out yesterday that they are insisting to my CPA that I signed a document agreeing to their figures on what I owe them on January 9th of this year, when in fact I haven't been in touch with them at all since I gave my CPA power of attorney in early December. Three different agents were adamant I had signed some document that I have never seen and would never have signed.
If I make a mistake it involves interest and penalties. If they make a mistake I have to hire a CPA or a lawyer and fight them tooth and nail and if I can make my point and prevail they don't even apologize. If I owe them money, they can collect for up to 7 years. If they owe me money, I can only go back 3. In all other areas of our country you are innocent until proven guilty, but with the IRS you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent at great expense. The IRS is a Gestapo level organization and we could get rid of it with the Fair Tax. The Fair Tax would end the process of "Examinations" or what we call audits. Your audit is only an unintentional mistake away. In my case the mistake was due to my tax preparer losing a 1099 I had given him and for that they disallowed all of my mileage and expenses until after I went and hired someone who knew how to deal with them, but at great expense. My life for the last 2 years has been unduly stressed with the IRS just dismissing out of hand anything I tried to present them. When I made an amended retun to fix the error on the original they added an additional penalty. You are next and after you comes your children. I told my story to a friend and she told me that she has another friend whose husband died owing money to the IRS. She had never filed jointly since he was a developer and yet the IRS is not only after her but has put liens on the childrens houses also. It can't or won't happen to you or your children? Better think again.