|
IRS audits drop sharply
|
 |
April 12, 1999: 8:05 a.m. ET
Agency less likely to review corporate, wealthy filers, reports say
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The Internal Revenue Service audited 20 percent fewer tax returns last year and expects the trend to continue in 1999, published reports said Monday.
While audit rates are falling, the chances that corporations and Americans earning more than $100,000 a year will get audited are dropping especially sharply, the New York Times said in its report.
Overall, the agency audited 1.2 million returns in the government's fiscal year ended Sept. 30, down from 1.5 million the year before, the Wall Street Journal reported. The newspaper quoted an IRS official as saying the rate of audits will "continue to decline" in 1999 from 1998.
In its report, the Times said just one out of 60 high-income returns was audited last year, down from one in nine in 1988. Meanwhile, just over one in three of the nation's biggest 8,500 companies was audited, down from two out of three in 1988.
After widespread reports of heavy-handed tactics by tax collectors, Congress passed a law last year that makes the rights and needs of taxpayers the agency's top priority. The law, the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, offers taxpayers greater protection in several areas, notably audits.
The news reports were based on IRS data analyzed by researchers at Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which is affiliated with Syracuse University. 
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
