@gmoney3
The consequences for Joe are 1- his entire refund is likely to be delayed because the big giant computers that handle returns don't like when things don't match, and this number won't match what the computer expects. This then kicks the tax return right out of the fast lane that would ordinarily get Joe a refund in 5 or 6 days - 21 at most.
Now, the computer stops processing Joe's return and sends him to 2 queues. One of those involves a human to look at his return and another involves another computer which will spit out a form letter explaining the problem causing Joe to call the number on the letter, wait for hours and hours, and finally talk to an agent.
Now, we can talk about the people who have to look at your return, AND answer your calls. There aren't nearly enough of them. They are answering tens of thousands of calls a day, or listening to as many rants day, mostly about stimulus checks - including questions they can't possibly know the answer to about a third stimulus payment that doesn't exist yet (or how like unemployment that isn't yet not taxable.)
They are still processing last year's returns. There are people who got the exact same letter Joe is about to get, LAST YEAR , who are still waiting for their 2019 refunds. To make matters worse, since their 2019 return is still hung up, they didn't get their stimulus payments, they are having trouble e-filing their 2020 return, if they are trying to buy a home their lender can't verify their income. It's quite a mess. Oh- and they are calling the IRS every other day, too, making those lines longer. Or they are sending their returns in again, filling more trucks and warehouses and storage buildings up with more unopened mail.
Then there's the little matter of the law. It's against the law to knowingly and intentionally file an incorrect tax return. To do so to avoid paying tax on some income, even though you believe it may not be taxable in a matter of days or weeks is technically tax evasion. That's the stuff that took down Al Capone. Now, I'll be honest here. I added that last bit for dramatic effect. No one is going to arrest and prosecute unemployed down on his luck Joe for doing this silly little thing in light of the facts. If they did, he'd likely get out of jail only to find that he was still waiting for the IRS to process his refund from 2020!!!
Don't be like Joe.
