You have no idea as to the complexity of tax law. There are more than 16,000 pages of rules that define what is allowable and what is not.
Then you have the opinion of interpretation by each enforcer. Sometimes they are right, sometimes they are wrong. Sometimes they are fair and other times they go way the hell overboard.
Sometimes when you submit your forms you pray someone won’t grab your file and say “Let’s have a look see and send this guy a demand letter”.
People do all kinds of things when they think they have the power and the enforcers at IRS in general are pretty ruthless.
Not fair, ruthless.
I am aware of the tax code, and it is not so ridiculously complex by accident, it’s by design! If we had a simple flat tax that would stop a lot of the abuses I’m talking about.