> As the article suggests some are just filing incorrectly, what are the real risks and consequences of this?
Provided you never used an R&D tax credit, none.
But if you did, with a huge templated report report about software R&D, you have a verbatim provable record of doing R&D expenses. And those reports, they come from 10 different vendors who all use the same words and formatting. The IRS could easily solve one case and get everyone.