The federal government knows exactly how much I made. There is no financial information beyond the view of the federal government. The only way I could hide income would be to get paid in cash (or cash equivalent, like gold) then hide that money in a safety deposit box. That doesn't exactly scale very long. It's notoriously difficult to buy a car (or bread) with gold bricks. Also, if someone does do this they aren't going to just tell the government "yeah I have $700,000 in gold sitting in my safety deposit box".
Even if the government had absolutely no records of my income (which is false), there should be an option for me to just submit all my income records to them tabulated. I can attach a bank account number and routing number and have them deduct whatever money I owe in taxes from the account. End of story. Unless the IRS is claiming you owe a massive amount of money relative to your income, it is never worth contesting it. You're going to spend more money & time than you will ever recover.
Even if the government had absolutely no records of my income (which is false), there should be an option for me to just submit all my income records to them tabulated. I can attach a bank account number and routing number and have them deduct whatever money I owe in taxes from the account. End of story. Unless the IRS is claiming you owe a massive amount of money relative to your income, it is never worth contesting it. You're going to spend more money & time than you will ever recover.