Pretty much the IRS is one of the single most powerful government entities of all. If you don't pay your taxes, they will charge you with tax evasion. You will then end up owing the taxes, plus interest on the taxes, plus penalties for not paying, and you cannot declare bankruptcy to avoid them. Also, tax debt comes first, so they can garnish wages, seize banks accounts, seize and auction certain real property you own (normally your house and a single car are exempt, assuming they're under a certain dollar amount in value), investments you hold, destroy your credit rating, and go after any inheritance you receive, and this all takes precedent over any other bills or debt you have. Oh, and the beauty of it is, they slap you with the penalties administratively, which means that you don't go to court unless you challenge their assessment, which of course means you have to hire a lawyer and usually an accountant to dispute the penalties, so you're out thousands even if you win. Also, on top of that, they can criminally charge you in federal court with felony income tax evasion, which can carry anywhere between 5 years and up in federal prison (depending on the severity and if other tax laws are broken).
Now, whether they will bother going after you is a whole different ballgame. Usually, an obvious mistake or misstatement is simply corrected by them and they send you the bill in the mail, but if your return if not filed or raises red flags, they may audit you. Some people don't pay taxes for years before they get audited, and they usually get screwed bad when the IRS finally catches up with them. I've seen successful people lose businesses, homes, and virtually everything they have when the IRS caught up with them. Of course, they're the ones that brought that on themselves.
How powerful is the IRS! Ask Wesley Snipes! Michael Milken, Al Capone....
If you believe in God; IRS would be number 2
They can fine you, assess penalties, prosecute you, put you in jail, seize all of your possessions, auction them off to pay your debts. So yes they are pretty powerful and not someone that you really want to mess with. Ask Willie Nelson, or Wesley Snipes.
1.garnish your wages for more than 50% of your take home pay...
2-freeze and clean out your bank accounts.
3-add on lots of penalties and taxes to what you owe them.
4-intercept all future "refunds"
5-put you in jail
They can take money out of your paycheck.
They can freeze and take your bank accounts.
They can put liens on your house.
They can take your future refunds
They can, if it's bad enough, have you arrested and put in jail.
youre better off paying tax !
You should now. Don't let it be late!!!
They can ruin any one if they want.
