There are moments in life when your own stupidity dumbfounds you.

The letter I got from theIRS on my birthday, no less was one of those moments.

Confusion quickly curdled into panic.

I had to scan the document four times before my brain absorbed the issue.

On a page titled “What caused the differences,” there were two numbers listed side by side.

One number, under the heading “reported by third parties,” was my salary at Business Insider.

The other number, under “shown on your return,” was zero dollars.

Without meaning to, I hadcheated on my taxes.

In my defense, 2023 had been a chaotic year for my family.

Both my wife and I changed jobs.

We had our second kid, which meant we remained sleep-deprived throughout tax season.

We started acollege savings fundfor our children.

She replied three minutes later.

“I’ll take a look and get back to you,” she assured us.

“This happens much more often than you might think.”

As usual, Greta was right.

Every year, several million Americans fail to properly file their taxes.

The IRS also sends taxpayers 170 million notices a year.

My therapist told me I was his third client to get an IRS notice this year.

Even tax specialists screw up and forget to attach their W2s.

The galling thing is, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Countries as diverse as Chile, Denmark, and Estonia already automate tax returns.

In Japan you get a postcard.

The government calculates your taxes, you agree or disagree, and you’re done.

As a result, Americans are stuck with a system that’s both cumbersome and prone to errors.

When you get a notice from the IRS, you enter a game of chicken.

The notice was asking us to say, “You caught me.”

There was nothing about how much we owed.

With the IRS, only after you confess to your crime does the agency send you the bill.

The problem is, you could be waiting a long time for that bill.

The agency has a three-year statute of limitations to review filings.

Greta has some clients who received bills more than a year and a half after they filed their taxes.

Hence, the game of chicken.

Greta asked what we wanted to do.

Make it go away, we said.

Tell us what we owe and make the nightmare end.

She redid our returns and emailed us a revised calculation.

All told, we owed $10,102, including just over a grand in penalties and interest.

Zak Jasonis a deputy editor of Discourse at Business Insider.