If you've been audited in the past, you're on the agency's audit hit list for at least a few years, said Online Taxman's Villamena. And while there's nothing you can do to avoid being scrutinized, you should play it extremely safe to avoid getting another audit.
"If you get audited once, you have a very good chance of being audited again," said Villamena. "For the following three years or so, you should be very careful about the aggressiveness or risk you take on subsequent returns, because the IRS is going to be monitoring you."
From pet pigs to Playboy magazines, here are some of the most outlandish deductions taxpayers have tried to slip past the IRS.
