IRS Audit of Individual Returns Hits Lowest Rate Since 2005 

The Internal Revenue Service audited 0.96 percent of individual tax returns in fiscal 2013, reaching the lowest rate since 2005, Bloomberg News reports. 

The agency increased the revenue it collected from tax enforcement by 6.3 percent to $53 billion last fiscal year, but that increase came largely in collections and appeals from tax filings in earlier years. 

Revenue generated from audits was $9.83 billion, less than $10 billion for the first time since at least 2003. The IRS has 19,531 employees in what it calls “key enforcement positions,” down 14 percent since the 2010 peak, and has lost more than $1 billion in funding and some 8,000 employees since that peak. 

Audit rates in all income groups declined in 2013. Among taxpayers with incomes exceeding $1 million, 10.85 percent were audited, a figure that’s still more than double the rate in 2006. 

The information was contained in the report of the National Taxpayer Advocate (see separate, related blog post).

Source:  Bloomberg News at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-08/irs-audits-of-individuals-reached-lowest-rate-since-2005.html