Lowest Chance of IRS Audit in Years

Posted on April 15, 2014

Everyone is scrambling to get their taxes filed on time, by today really. Some of you will file an extension, some of you will pay a penalty for not filing an extension and the rest of you, the good law abiding citizens, will file your taxes by today.

The scare tactic and worry of undergoing an audit is daunting on the average American. Archaic tax code and ever more complicated tax return processing, deductions and expenses make most of us a little crazy during tax time. Then there is the worry that you might have done it wrong, accidentally, not on purpose. The fear that the IRS will come knocking and audit you.

We heard a sigh of relief from a number of American taxpayers (law abiding and not) that there will be less auditing in 2014. Last year, the IRS audited less than 1 percent of all returns from individuals, the lowest rate since 2005. This year, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said testifying on Capitol Hill, “The numbers will go down.”

There are triggers that will flag you for an audit, like you claiming income that doesn’t match what your employer claimed or claiming almost as much in deductions as income.

Koskinen said that the IRS could collect billions in revenue if the IRS had more resources and the president’s budget says the IRS could collect $6 for every $1 increase in the agency’s enforcement budget. It’s Congress that is resisting and Koskinen says, “I have not figured out either philosophically or psychologically why nobody seems to care whether we collect the revenue or not.”

As tax attorneys, we don’t ever want anyone to have to suffer through a tax audit but if you do, we’re here to represent you and find a way to make it manageable. However, looks like we might be focusing our work in our other specialties in 2014.