Taxes

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What examples have you heard of of people getting audited by the IRS or getting sent to jail for Fraud?

How accurate were your tax calculations?

Did the IRS send you a bill?

How hard is it for you to do your taxes? How long does it take? Do you hire someone?

What kind of work do you do?

What kind of unearned income do you have?

Surely you're not worried about being audited in a minimum wage job?

Tax time was easy enough when we were both on a single wage each.
When I started a trade business and we were also running a farm and both had a second job too, tax got really complicated. We got an accounting firm to do it then, and with their deductible fees and efficiency in claiming deductions and rebates it was far cheaper than DIY.
We generally got a refund cheque on taxes automatically paid through our employment.
It was still worth doing when I went on a disability pension.
We only stopped when we were both on a pension and we fell below the taxable threshold.

Jim Bakker and Billy Sol Estes got sent to jail for fraud. I know Mike "The Situation" Sorentino did time for tax evasion.I heard that low-income people who claim the earned income tax credit who are working can get audited more but i dont know if thats true.My families taxes are fairly complex due to all the oil wells we own as a family.One time we had to talk to a U.S. Congressman about fixing a issue that resulted from our oil company taxes and its interaction with social security. However I dont have to file a income tax return because I make below the filing threshold.We hire someone to do our taxes.

Yes I find US taxes very hard, partly because I'm a foreign national and they make it harder for us. There's supposed to be a reciprocal agreement with the UK, which should mean that as I pay my taxes in the UK, I don't pay them in the US, but that's only true for federal taxes, and the states have other ideas. So AFAIK I pay local taxes but not national taxes in the US. But it's weird because the forms I fill in (actually it's an accountant that does it, as even my wife who is a US citizen doesn't fully understand the taxation of foreign nationals) say "income tax" on them. In the UK, local taxes are based on the notional value of the property you live in, so I don't know what that's about.

They want all kinds of numbers and documents I don't have to hand. In the UK they've always taken the tax at source and most people don't even have to know tax exists - no tax returns unless you're self-employed. Much better IMO. Sure, it infantilizes the individual to a degree, and as a rule I hate being treated like a kid, but hey, I can check my UK taxes are correct if I want to, and challenge them if I think they're wrong. So why not leave it to the experts? Why force all Americans to do accountancy work every damn year? Isn't that a bit of a waste of everybody's time? I know you can hire an accountant, but who pays for that? And who's held responsible if the accountant gets it wrong? End of rant.

the wealthy by and large avoid scrutiny by the IRS, more so in republican administrations, during shrub's [GWB] administratiuon the IRS concentrated their attention on people making less than 6 figures., believing there were undeserving people receiving the Earned Income Tax Credit.

I do my own taxes and have made a couple mistakes so I've filed amended returns.

To my mind the tax system has never really been fit for purpose, which probably isn't surprising considering its origins (conquering leaders sucking the conquered dry) and the lack of political will to redistribute. True, there's a little bit of socialism in the mix, but why anybody receiving less than the modal income should be paying anything is a matter that need explaining in terms of fair play and the purpose of modern taxation.