I don't want to give the IRS any money.

Factual Questions
21

I don’t work for the IRS but my mother does:

#1 In some respects I would almost wonder if this person could claim you as a dependent.

#2 The things to watch out for would be any high value purchases. If the IRS comes knocking and you drive a 2 year old ferrari and are wearing a nice armani suit, plan on them crawling up your ass with an electron microscope and counting every bacterium to rule them out as assets. If you answer the door in faded jens and a t shirt, they will probably not bother.

You will have problems if you get a job and start filing again, they will want returns for the intervening years.

22

Amusingly, if they did send you a demand, they would have to settle for some of your works of art.

  • and they are the ones who defined their value, at your farmer friend’s ‘valuation’
    (he might be being charitable to you)
23

Does the fact that the owner of the gallery sells some of the art factor into this? The owner would have to pay taxes on the money generated by the art sales. I would think that link would push the issue of whether selling the art was a condition of the living in the loft. Especially if the money generated from the art sales was roughly equilalent to the value of renting the loft. Just because you say it isn’t doesn’t mean they would accept that it isn’t.

And from my experience, with the IRS you are guilty until proven innocent. They could look for any checking accounts, credit cards, anything to show you had money. Paying for a cell phone, internet service, gas, trips, anything you have been billed for would need explanations of where that money came from.

Whether or not they would bother is another question. But if they wanted to I would think they could force you to explain how you have been living without any income since you are claiming you do not receive any money from the sales of your art.