[nws103]

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but mainly b: I believe it is morally wrong to hide income from taxation. Believe me, I realize I'm in the minority. And I'm not surprised that No is ahead. Most people think I'm crazy to pay. Of course, most people I know, when I bring up taxes, talk about how to cheat like it's not big deal.

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my two cents:
Its *only* legally wrong to not pay taxes.
Morally, i'm pretty sure its the opposite. If there is a god, a whole lot of people are gonna be answering a bunch of questions at the pearly gates on why they funded the US war machine with their income.
So i guess you can choose who to be in trouble with, the irs, or your conscience.

Myself, being too lazy to be religious, I pay everything i owe mainly because of what you said about audits. They will find you, and it can be years from the time it happens. I just got a notice in the mail that i had a 40 dollar error in my return from 3 years ago. Scared the crap out of me when i saw "audit division" on the envelope, and boy was i relieved when i saw that i merely owed 40 plus interest.
The moral of the story is that they'll catch you eventually.

And people who say the amounts matter are crazy. If you're hiding 5,000 in income from the gov't or 100,000, it still works out to the theft of thousands of dollars, according to the IRS.
And i think the deciding factor on prison is intent: hide money on purpose, go to jail. Hide money accidentally (miscalculations etc), pay interest and maybe a fine.