Our Tax System: Higher Audit Rates for Lower Income Taxpayers

Paul Caron:

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) of Syracuse University reports  today that only 30 of the nation’s 180,000 plus millionaires were subject to face-to-face audits in FY 2005. When only traditional face-to-face audits are considered, those reporting less than $25,000 in total positive income were six times more likely to be audited than all those reporting $200,000 or more in income. IRS continues to withhold from TRAC statistical data it has made public in the past that might explain the aberration.