> grave consequences for making any sort of mistake
Not really. The grave consequences tend to be doled out to people who're obviously trying to cheat the system. For most people, it's just "you owe X. Please pay X."
If you take a long time to pay X then there might be penalties added.
I remember that years after my wife shut down a business, we got a very nasty letter from the IRS about all the things they could do: sue, garnish wages, confiscating the house, jail terms, etc. But it all boiled down to "you owe $75 from 3 years ago. Pay it ASAP."
One interesting thing my "tax guy" pointed out is that the IRS is pretty lenient on businesses in their first year because they expect you to make a lot of mistakes in accounting or filing taxes.
Not really. The grave consequences tend to be doled out to people who're obviously trying to cheat the system. For most people, it's just "you owe X. Please pay X." If you take a long time to pay X then there might be penalties added.
I remember that years after my wife shut down a business, we got a very nasty letter from the IRS about all the things they could do: sue, garnish wages, confiscating the house, jail terms, etc. But it all boiled down to "you owe $75 from 3 years ago. Pay it ASAP."
One interesting thing my "tax guy" pointed out is that the IRS is pretty lenient on businesses in their first year because they expect you to make a lot of mistakes in accounting or filing taxes.