Tax Day has come and gone. All of those feelings of dread because you may have procrastinated doing your taxes how now turned into different feelings of dread — the fear of being audited. While it is rare for your average families in America to suffer an audit at the hands of the Internal Revenue Service, the chances this year are even lower than they have been previously. In fact, this could be one of the least audited tax seasons in decades.
Because of the number of budget cuts that affect the IRS, the federal tax arm will have the least number of agents auditing tax returns since the 1980s. At the same time, the reduced number of resources for the IRS means that customer care has gone down. Millions of phone calls have gone unanswered, and that will likely continue during these busy post-Tax Day weeks and months.
Add in the fact that less than 1 percent of tax returns were audited last year — and that, by the IRS commissioner’s own admission, “the numbers will go down” — it all adds up to a tax season that will see very few audits.
Now, this story doesn’t mean you’re in the clear if you blatantly lied on your taxes. The IRS has plenty of means to catch people who make egregious errors. If you lie about your income or if you make improper deductions, you will probably catch the wrath of the IRS.
However, maybe the most telling piece of information from this story is the reduced customer service provided by the IRS. If you have serious tax issues and you are not able to effectively communicate with the IRS, contact an experienced tax attorney.
Source: CBS News, “Chances of IRS tax audit are lowest in years,” Associated Press, April 13, 2014
