# Disclosing my occupation on the 1040 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 10, 2004, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disclosing-my-occupation-on-the-1040/239344 "2004-04-10T17:59:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disclosing-my-occupation-on-the-1040/239344/1 "2004-04-10T17:59:35Z")
Just finished filling out my income tax forms this morning, and the last question on the 1040 form – after asking for your signiature – is “occupation.” What’s the point of that? Is the IRS collecting demographic information? Would I get in trouble if I answered “rodeo clown” or “hit man” (given than neither of those accurately describes my current profession? ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disclosing-my-occupation-on-the-1040/239344/2 "2004-04-10T18:28:25Z")
I’m no expert - not a lawyer nor accountant nor IRS worker, but I think you _could_ get in trouble, since you sign the whole form ‘under penalties of perjury.’ I have no idea if they’d actually bother to take you to task, though. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disclosing-my-occupation-on-the-1040/239344/3 "2004-04-10T18:32:21Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > Just finished filling out my income tax forms this morning, and the last question on the 1040 form – after asking for your signiature – is “occupation.” What’s the point of that? Is the IRS collecting demographic information? Would I get in trouble if I answered “rodeo clown” or “hit man” (given than neither of those accurately describes my current profession? IANA IRS auditor but my mom answers taxpayer questions for the IRS. I dont think it really matters what you put. She has seen returns where people claim they are drug dealers, prostitutes, pimps, etc. About all they really care about is are you paying the proper amount of taxes on your income, not how you made it. In addition it apparently takes some kind of hefty federal level warrant to get the IRS to release any information about you. So unless law enforcement can get the proper warrant to get your tax info, they will not even know. The federal gov’t is not in the business of handling street crime , unless IIRC it crosses state lines. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disclosing-my-occupation-on-the-1040/239344/4 "2004-04-10T19:15:59Z")
The tax-help computer programs say it’s so the IRS can make a guess on whether you might have any unreported under-the-table income if they’re considering auditing you. A hit man would be more likely to be audited than an office worker, because the former usually work in cash and therefore have more opportunity to under-report their income. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disclosing-my-occupation-on-the-1040/239344/5 "2004-04-10T22:39:59Z")
More realistically, I’d point out that tipped employees would be more likely to get “under the table tips” audits than hitmen. Doorman, waiter, … etc ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2004, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disclosing-my-occupation-on-the-1040/239344/6 "2004-04-11T00:55:52Z")
I’m in a rather audit-prone profession and have always put a euphemism for my true occupation in that place on the form. I’ve read that the audit selection program pays some attention to that field when picking lucky winners, so I wanted something which their word-matcher didn’t recognize, but which would pass the truth test if somebody ever made an issue of it. So far, no audits, although whether my precautions have had any effect we’ll never know. ---
**Author:** ![suezeekay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@suezeekay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suezeekay)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2004, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disclosing-my-occupation-on-the-1040/239344/7 "2004-04-11T06:14:40Z")
I either don’t put in anything or something very general because sometimes the IRS does job-specific audits and can use this to sort by occupation. For example, if they decided to audit all jockeys. Of course this was back a lot of years ago when I used to work for them; maybe they don’t have the manpower now. But just in case… ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2004, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disclosing-my-occupation-on-the-1040/239344/8 "2004-04-11T14:48:41Z")
> [@Jonathan Woodall](#): > > More realistically, I’d point out that tipped employees would be more likely to get “under the table tips” audits than hitmen. Doorman, waiter, … etc Yeah, I was going to say “waitress,” but decided to go with the example the OP used. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![netscape\_6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/8c91f0/32.png) [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2004, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disclosing-my-occupation-on-the-1040/239344/9 "2004-04-11T19:18:01Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’m in a rather audit-prone profession and have always put a euphemism for my true occupation in that place on the form. > > I’ve read that the audit selection program pays some attention to that field when picking lucky winners, so I wanted something which their word-matcher didn’t recognize, but which would pass the truth test if somebody ever made an issue of it. > > So far, no audits, although whether my precautions have had any effect we’ll never know. Mind if I ask what you put?