Tax Audits, Everyone's Worst Nightmare

Talk of an IRS audit instills fear in almost everyone. You wonder if that extra charitable contribution will trigger an audit based on some magical IRS formula. Evidently you can relax somewhat if your income is less than $200,000.


Only .96 percent of taxpayers who make under $200,000 were audited last year compared with 2.89 percent of those making more than $200,000. People with income over 1 million dollars were audited at the rate of 6.42%.

Additionally, the number of audits increased 11% from 2008 and 2009 for people making $200,000 or more and 30% for those making 1 million or more. However, for people making less than %200,000, the rate of audits did not increase.