And, if you do get audited, don't take their first ruling as gospel if it goes against you. My dad did 30 years with the "revenuers" in a number of different jobs. The last one was Chief of Conference which was the last place you went before going to court. He told me 75% of their case load was computer entry error.

One year I was expecting about $400 back. Instead of getting the green check I go a form that said I'd paid minus $3.60. They wanted $1000 plus $1500 in penalties. I called dad, who prepared my return. He said he was going to the Fresno data center the next day to discuss the same kind of problems and would let me know what happened the next night.

The day went something like this. He went into the meeting where they shucked and jived him for an hour. He then asked them to pull my return but only gave them my SS#. They passed it around the room and said, "We're gonna screw this guy to the floor."

My dad asked, "Did anyone happen to see who prepared the return?"

No one had.

My dad said, "IT WAS ME!!!"

The rest of the day consisted of him raging through the building and them sounding like Yorkies that just has their feet stepped on.

I wish I'd been there.