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They do anyway. One year, I must have screwed up my return, because I got a letter from the IRS saying: We think you screwed up, here's why, send us X amount, and we're good. Or you can file an amended return.

I sent in X amount. We were good.

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FYI those letters are, afaik at least, typically grossly overestimated. The number is meant to scare you into calling a CPA to straighten it out, essentially. So for anyone else with the same kind of letter, don't just pay unless you know that it's correct ahead of time.

Thanks for that tip. In our case, the error was due to a missing form, and when I corrected it in Turbo Tax, my number was close enough to the IRS number, so I called it a day.

Note that this is a letter for an incorrect return, not an unfiled one.

I had one of those, and it specifically identified the error. When I went and checked the paperwork, the figure in the letter was precisely correct.

So, a tax filing life hack: fill $1 to all fields of the form and wait IRS to tell how much you actually need to pay?

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