Jophiel wrote:
But, yeah, you're "disturbed" over questionable ethical foundations regarding whether or not you underpay a buck on your produce
If the grocery store required you to spend hours filling out forms to figure out how much that produce costs, you'd have a point.
My decision not to file wasn't because I didn't want to pay, but because calculating the exact amount under/over was overly complex. I had no clue if I owed them money or they owed me (when you do exercises like that, the brokerage firm will automatically pay an amount to the IRS based on the "income" you're gaining, and it's usually more than you need to cover the taxes). My motivation was not about money, but my own time and annoyance at having to figure out the exact amounts. I knew it was in the ballpark (which it was). I actually assumed that I was losing out on a return at the time and was willing to take that loss rather than spend the time required.
The question in this thread was specifically about cases where you know that you owe someone a specific amount of money, but choose to keep your mouth shut when they make a mistake in your favor. That's a completely different thing. If I know I owe someone something, I endeavor to pay it. Always. The flip side though, is that I'm usually not that much of a stickler for calculating precise amounts. I usually err on the side of me paying extra though, not the other way around (obviously, the IRS thing worked out differently as it happened, but that's a rare case). If I can't remember who paid for the most rounds of drinks, I don't demand we check the bill or something. I just offer to pay the next one. It's not worth the time to worry about such things IMO.
However, if someone *is* a stickler for such things and does insist on complete calculations (like the IRS), then I'll make sure to be a stickler right back. Like, for example, the case of "gbaji 2, IRS 0", that just happened this year. When I filed my taxes this year, I somehow brain farted and forgot to attach my Schedule A (itemized deductions). I just put the number down on the form and moved on. Well, the IRS sent me a notice challenging the amount I'd put down, and required that I send them the Schedule A I'd forgotten to print out the first time. When I opened up the file I noticed that I'd somehow forgotten to include my property taxes and state income taxes on the form (doh!). So I'd significantly under reported my deductions (no clue what sort of brain farting was going on when I did that). In any case, I added them into the form, printed it out, and included a note instructing the IRS to make whatever adjustments to the result they felt appropriate. At the time, I had no expectation that they'd actually allow for the new deductions (since they were technically filed after the deadline), but would just verify that the original amount was accounted for and move on.
So imagine my surprise when the IRS sent me a check for $4600 a month or so later. Now, if they'd just ignored the fact that I'd forgotten to include a form to support my unusually low deductions for that year, they'd have not lost any cash. But by being sticklers, they lost money. Again.