@Chatayer Ah yes, loving words like calling me an old wombat. So lovely.
Because the good ole US of A likes to be nosy in some areas while being negligent in others. The IRS is always understaffed, and their systems don't go far enough to actually *know* what you're up to because of all the concessions in the tax code that changes every 4-8 years. So they rely on you to tell the truth, and their algorithm flags things that look suspicious based on previous filings. Then a person looks at it and determines if it's no big deal or if it requires an audit. The US knows a lot about us, but they don't actually care enough to put it all together because the separate federal agencies don't like each other and don't work together to share info. If they did, then people like me wouldn't have a job, or we'd have to pivot to becoming financial planners.