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Yes, I have certainly had a few clients in the past who wanted me to push the envelope as far as I would let them. When the chances of getting audited fell below 1 %, many people stopped thinking that the risk was real. Many big corporations and wealthy individuals who can afford high priced tax and legal advice and are encouraged to use every tax loophole that can be exploited definitely consider it a legitimate game. Our legal and tax systems have never been fair and balanced. Wealthy people and business entities have always received much better outcomes because they can afford much better advice and assistance.

I don't know the order but I had a client with custody of grandchild. The mother/daughter was out there in never never land. He has been claiming the child as a dependent. But mother/daughter has been efiling early and claiming the child. This past year, she must have claimed the market place credit so my client's return was accepted but IRS claimed back the advance credit from his refund. He recently got it straightened out and received his full refund. But the original IRS letter noted that a dependent ssn was the catch. So yes, the ssn is checked somewhere along the line and matched up with everything else going on.

"The agency described that solution as “short-term” but has still not presented a roadmap for how it plans to transition away from only using ID.me. The IRS did not respond to multiple requests for comment about its transition to Login.gov or its use of ID.me."

interesting. I thought that they were migrating over to ID.me but that could be outdated information. Anyway, I recommend to clients to set up ID.me using their computer and have their smart phone handy. Trying to do it all on a phone is a bit tricky.

I have privacy concerns about ID.me. They started as a direct competitor of Groupon and can be currently used to access retailer discounts. The IRS's official position is that ID.me is a temporary solution to be replaced at some point in the future, possibly by login.gov when login.gov is improved. I am not going to try to use them again!

Meanwhile, the debt bomb keeps ticking.

A client of mine went to another preparer and his efile was rejected because one of the family members had Obama Care and needed to reconcile. Preparer asked the client for the form from the exchange and client made calls and of course the exchange didn't have any forms to give him. Anyways, the preparer insisted and finally my ex-client called me in June. I said that my fees were 75% higher and that I was going on vacation. He patiently waited for my and two weeks ago, I worked on his return. I noticed the new preparer entered the wrong social security for one of his daughter and sure enough, my return was accepted flawlessly when I efiled. He received his 6K+ from the IRS and his 2K+ from MD. So, the IRS gets a social security number and the first thing it does is to check it if he has an obama care flag. If flag exists, it reject the return. If flag doesn't exists, then it checks last name (and first initial), if they don't match, they reject it. Does anyone know exactly the order of events when you enter a social security in an efile file? I believe the very first thing the IRS check is if that SS number has filed a return and then it check if that SS number has been claimed as a dependent. Thank you.

things have changed since the Untouchables...a bit more sophistication required. But do Americans even look at tax cheats as crooks? I've certainly encountered a number of folks who just think it's a game.

Efficient Government is an oxymoron. So, you're saying that the IRS's best hope is that the CPAs that are disgusted with the lack of work/life balance at the Big 4 might apply to the IRS. I think you nailed it all. Thank you for your review of Werfel's speech.

I had no problems getting set up and using loin.gov However I am apparently too stupid to navigate my way through getting set up with ID.me What an incredible frustrating experience