Let us correct a few of your misstatements here. First, all the IRS can do administratively is review your return and try to determine if you have paid the correct tax. If not they can assess the correct tax and penalties and interest.
Fines and jail require a criminal prosecution in a real court of law (not an administrative court). Now that the tax laws have been amended to put the burden of proof on the IRS after "good faith" compliance by the taxpayer, criminal cases are going to be obvious cases of deliberate tax fraud.
There are very very clear laws that protect the confidentiality of tax returns and restrict their use to the intended purpose of collecting revenue. This is for a very good reason. If tax returns start being used as prosecutorial tools for other crimes then the 5th amendment will kick in, folks can and will stop filing them and the "voluntary tax compliance system" will fall apart.
There is no madness in this at all. The alternative is to have the Italian system of tax collection. That is madness.
WHAT? What in the Wide Wide World of Sports are you talking about. The government has been using the tax code as a prosecutorial tool since well before they jailed Al Capone with it. Capone was a thug and a mobster but to the best of my knowledge, he was at least in the country legally. And yes, It is high time that the citizens of this country stopped submitting to this tyranny.
Now that you got me thinking about it Andy, have you ever tried to call the IRS. Personally, I’d rather chew one of my own fingers off then attempt it again.