Nice business you got here.

Be a shame if…aw, you know the rest.

Via Claire, here’s a heartwarming story about a group of selfless men and women who, seeing their beloved government strapped for the cash so badly needed for maintaining essential services, found an innovative way of raising some. Sort of like a bake sale, y’know, but without all those annoying cookies.

One letter the IRS sent is headlined, “Notification of Possible Income Underreporting.” It notifies the business owner “your gross receipts may be underreported” and says they must complete a form “to explain why the portion of your gross receipts from non-card payments appears unusually low.”
…
Though the IRS has only sent letters to small percentage of businesses so far, around 20,000 of the estimated millions in the U.S., the agency says they hope to expand the program in the coming months.

See, it’s just sort of a prank. Like. The businesses haven’t actually done anything illegal, unethical or fattening, in fact there’s been no investigation at all. That’s what’s so funny about it! Get it? You just send a letter like that to the accounting department of every small business, on IRS stationary, and see how much money shakes out. Wacky fun!