If it makes you feel any better, my accountant charged me $1800 to prepare the paperwork that says my corporation owes the $800 to California for alternative minimum tax. Because my corporation did precious little work last year and is mostly amortizing purchases from 2014 still. Companies such as Quicken and H&R Block exist because of the "do you feel lucky, punk?" duality of Americans and our taxation system. On the one hand, we know the game is rigged and if you play deduction bingo correctly you can save a bajillion dollars. On the other hand, we know that if you play deduction bingo incorrectly you get to sit through an audit. Meanwhile, H&R and Intuit know that if you've got a job and not much else you can totally file a 1040EZ but only 13% do so in pursuit of those hidden riches from itemized deductions... and also know that your odds of being audited if you make less than a million dollars a year are on the order of half of one percent.
I had the good fortune to be indoctrinated with a deep fear of the feds, and essentially was encultured to believe that they WILL be auditing me. I WILL have to account for every dollar I've earned and spent, since I was bagging groceries in high school.your odds of being audited if you make less than a million dollars a year are on the order of half of one percent.