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Comment by Johnny555 | Hacker News Reader

they had their computer systems scour a bunch of the bank records and discovered that I had forgotten to claim a 1099

I assumed they did that automatically for everyone -- does that mean that if I "forget" to attach a 1099 then they IRS won't know unless they do this special "electronic audit"?

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I don't think that's actually how this works - most times when you get a 1099, the issuer is also required to file a copy with the IRS. As such - no bank account scanning required.

That's what I thought, my SSN is on the 1099, so it should be trivial for the IRS to match them up. That's why I was surprised when he said that they only caught it during an audit.

I suspect the term "audit" is being used loosely here. One man's audit is another man's reconciliation - did they just send you a notice of deficiency?

Yup, dumb mistake on my part, so I track it better now. The point is, do I really have to do all this work tracking everything to guess which card they are hiding behind their backs. It's kinda dumb IMO.

They probably just sent you a letter asking you to pay it with a smidgen of interest and that was that, right? Probably hardly worth doing extra work to be super thorough unless it was a large amount.

ya, it was stupid, the interest was about $300 or something. I would have paid the original amount but I just screwed up and mis-placed the 1099. It was a gotchya game. I think this could be why people hate taxes so much, of course we all hate taxes but the way you do it matters IMO.

ya, I am sure you are right, I get a bunch of them and I missed a small one. But whatever, the point is, they could just send me a statement.

At some point this becomes a Fourth Amendment violation, so that might prevent the IRS from doing it.

pretty sure everyone gets an "electronic audit." It's really just a check to see if you claimed all the income that others claimed they gave you.

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