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Chances for Being Audited

On December 22, 2017, The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law. The information in this article predates the tax reform legislation and may not apply to tax returns starting in the 2018 tax year. You may wish to speak to your tax advisor about the latest tax law. This publication is provided for your convenience and does not constitute legal advice. This publication is protected by copyright.

Chances for Being Audited
During Fiscal Year (FY) 2010, the IRS processed 230 million Federal tax returns and supplemental documents and collected $2.3 trillion in gross taxes. After accounting for 122.2 million refunds, totaling $467.3 billion, collections (net of refunds) totaled $1.8 trillion.

During FY 2010, there were more than 141.1 million individual income tax returns filed, accounting for 61.3 percent of all returns filed. Individual income tax withheld and tax payments, combined, totaled almost $1.2 trillion before refunds. Individual taxpayers received $358 billion in refunds.

The IRS also processed almost 2.4 million returns and collected almost $278 billion in taxes, before refunds, from corporations in FY 2010. Partnerships and S-Corporations filed an additional 8 million returns.

More than 116 million returns, including almost 70 percent of individual income tax returns, were filed electronically in FY 2010. More than 64 million returns were submitted to the IRS through paid preparers, while 2.9 million taxpayers whose adjusted gross income was $58,000 or less filed using the IRS Free File program. The following table shows the percentage of returns By AGI and the audit percentage for that income category. Certain income levels are audited more frequently than others.

AGI % Of all returns filed   % Audited  
All Returns 100.00 1.11
No adjusted gross income 2.11 3.19
$1 under $25,000   39.62 1.18
$25,000 under $50,000 23.96 0.73
$50,000 under $75,000 13.41 0.78
$75,000 under $100,000 8.21 0.64
$100,000 under $200,000 9.64 0.71
$200,000 under $500,000 2.41 1.92
$500,000 under $1,000,000 0.41 3.37
$1,000,000 under $5,000,000 0.20 6.67
$5,000,000 under $10,000,000 0.01 11.56
$10,000,000 or more 0.01 18.38

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