<prompt> Human: Throwaway bc personal stuff. Thanks in advance for reading. In 2016, my salary was somewhere around 70k. I have a wife and two kids and my W-4 had just a few deductions, maybe 5 tops. I was also doing some day trading with about 25k in cash. I dont day trade anymore, largely because I barely eked out a profit over the year and a half I was doing it. That said, its entirely possible that in 2016 I did make a few thousand, only to lose it again in 2017. But no way was it more than like 10k.I did my tax return with freetaxusa.com, didnt pay for any extra premium service or anything. Fast forward to March of this year. The IRS sends me a packet with all of the day trades I made and they say I owe an extra 4k in taxes. I read on this subreddit that I should call the IRS directly and Id have a good experience, and in fact the rep was very polite. I was shocked that I owed that much, but I have a bunch of other st going on in my life and I pay them. I ask, So after I pay this, were good, right? And she says yes. So then again a few weeks ago they send me and my wife this time each a letter saying we each owe 4k in taxes. The first time it was just me; if they my wife a letter it was lost in the mail. The letter shows that 2k in payments was made on each account. My wife didnt have a job in 2016 and we filed jointly anyway. I paid the IRS again because Im a btch and I dont want problems with the government. Big picture: I am concerned the IRS is screwing up. Even if theyre not, this is now 12,000 were talking about, so its worth a few hundred bucks to make sure its legit. Do I hire a tax attorney? Should I go do an HR Block free re-check? What options do I have, since they have my money? Or more specifically, my credit card companys money, since I havent paid that yet.Thanks.  <response>: Request a tax transcript for 2016 and look it over, it should show how they altered your return and you can see if it looks correct. Id look it over with an accountant if necessary before hiring an attorney. 