Contrary to IRS claims last year, audit rate for wealthy Americans sharply declines.
According to agency data obtained by the Transactional Record Access Clearinghouse in Syracuse, N.Y.:
The significant turndown in audits for richer Americans from FY 2007 to FY 2008 sharply contrasts with the IRS claim in a 2008 press release boasting that the agency was making “strong progress in a number of key enforcement areas,” especially for “those with incomes of $1 million or more.”
The IRS data clearly show that the audit rate on the 300,000-plus returns reporting incomes of more than $1 million was substantially down last year — dropping at least 19 percent. But because of admitted agency accounting errors and two sets of conflicting numbers the IRS published just last Friday (March 13, 2009), the actual extent of this decline may be much larger.
Continued here.
