So I know that brokerages will report a taxpayer's basis and sale price to the IRS to determine capital gains and losses, and from what I've seen online, if you fail to report a basis, the IRS will treat the sale as pure short term capital gains for taxation purposes. Of course, that is a bad break for the taxpayer in most cases, and reporting basis is just the logical play. Hypothetically, if one needed 1k more of income to qualify for a phased-in tax credit, could they decide NOT to report a basis for a long term sale with no net gain (say 2000 basis, 2000 sale price), to have that 2000 counted as a short term capital gain, getting them over the threshold? If so, what would be the likely result when the IRS notices the discrepancy between what the brokerage reported and what the individual reported?
