We all want to pay zero taxes. It is the American dream. But in the age of automated scoring systems, the line between “aggressive tax planning” and “audit trigger” is razor-thin. The IRS’s sophisticated algorithms don’t just look for fraud; they look for anomalies.
They compare your return against statistical norms for similar taxpayers—plumbers, writers, nurses—to spot outliers. When you claim a deduction that “sounds” logical but defies these norms, you aren’t necessarily saving money; you are inviting a stranger to comb through five years of your bank statements.
