IRS Audits More Millionaires and 6-figure Filers

by Patrick Lunsford, CollectionIndustry.com

The IRS is charging hard after high-income tax filers, according to figures released by the tax agency Monday.

The agency’s audit report showed that in fiscal year 2006 – which ended Sept 30, 2006 – the IRS audited 17,015 filers with incomes over $1 million, a 33% increase over the 12,835 audits reported on the same group in fiscal 2005. Also, the IRS said it audited 18% more filers with incomes above $100,000 in 2006. They reported total audits of 257,000 for that group.

But don’t think that the IRS has suddenly gone soft on the middle class: of the nearly 1.3 million individual audits conducted in fiscal 2006, 1,035,830 belonged to filers reporting less than $100,000.

The increased enforcement effort also extended to business filers. The IRS reported a 34% increase in S-corporation audits and a 15% rise in partnership audits.