Keith: I too have got the letters on the 1099s. They use a matching program on this. They only send you a letter asking why the difference. They do not send someone out to find you, say they are going to put you in jail, put liens on your property etc.
I do not think I would call this " go after you" as you stated
All they want is verification.
John
Wrong again John. The IRS will go after you if you neglect to report even small amounts of earned or dividend income. They send you letters demanding the additional taxes you owe on said income, plus interest and penalties. I don't know what happens if you simply refuse to pay up at that point because when it happened to me, I paid the piper. The amount I owed was so small that I'm relatively sure the administrative costs to pursue it were probably greater. A government that wastes billions on pork, fraud, and stupid things like studying the sex life of fruit flies can hardly legitimately complain about the cost or inconvenience of examining the books of low volume FFL's every couple years. If anything, an extremely low volume of sales should make the intervals for examinations or audits much less frequent, or totally unnecessary.
Real Estate sales is another government regulated business requiring a Real Estate License in most if not all states. I know a lady who has kept her California Real Estate License active, yet has not sold a house in over 20 years. I think there would be real concern by many if the government infringed upon 1st Amendment Rights by forcing low volume publishers out of business. Even publishers of subversive books like the Anarchist's Cookbook or Rules For Radicals do not have to submit to intrusive government inspections. Free men do not remain free by simply rolling over and accepting what is unacceptable.
And you still continue to make excuses for the government forcing a couple hundred thousand low volume FFL's out of business through the Clinton years while neglecting to comment on the recent intentions of Obama to require very low volume sellers of guns to become licensed FFL's. It would appear the the priorities have changed somewhat. The concern during the Bill Clinton era was to drive out as many gun dealers as possible. It appears that the concern now is to have a paper trail of virtually every sale as a backdoor registration scheme... something Congress expressly prohibited... so far.
Finally, Stan raises an excellent point about those who are required to have an 01 FFL to do business even though they may make a good living doing gunsmithing, engraving, case hardening, etc., without ever actually selling a gun.
