What Are Your Chances of Being Audited?

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The figures and percentages compare returns filed in calendar year 2008 and audited in FY 2009 to returns filed in calendar year 2007 and audited in FY 2008.

Of the 138,788,744 total individual income tax returns with a filing requirement (this excludes returns filed only to receive an economic stimulus payment), 1,425,888 were audited. This works out to roughly 1%, the same percentage as for the previous year. Of the total number of individual income tax returns audited in FY 2009, 508,180 (35.64%) were for returns with an earned income tax credit (EITC) claim, roughly the same as for FY 2008.

Only 22.8% of the individual audits were conducted by revenue agents, tax compliance officers, and tax examiners; the bulk of the audits (about 77.1%) were correspondence audits. These percentages are comparable to those for FY 2008.

Following are the selected audit rates for individuals not claiming the EITC:
… For business returns other than farm returns showing total gross receipts of $100,000 to $200,000, 4.2% of returns were audited in FY 2009, versus 3.8% in FY 2008.
… For business returns other than farm returns showing total gross receipts of $200,000 or more, 3.2% of returns were audited in FY 2009, versus 3.1% in FY 2008.
… Of the returns showing farm (Schedule F) income, .3% were audited in FY 2009 versus .6% in FY 2008.

… For returns showing total positive income of $200,000 to $1 million, 2.3% of returns not showing business activity were audited, and 3.1% of returns showing business activity were audited; for FY 2008, these percentages were 2.6% and 2.8% respectively.

… For FY 2009, the audit rate for returns with total positive income of $1 million or more was 6.4%, versus 5.6% in FY 2008.

The audit rates for business returns were as follows:
For all corporate returns other than Form 1120S, 1.3%, the same percentage as for the year before.
For small corporations with total assets of: $250,000 to $1 million, 1.3%; $1–$5 million, 1.8%; and $5–10 million, 2.7%. For FY 2008, the percentages were, respectively, 1.4%, 2%, and 3.1%.
For large corporations, those with total assets of $10 million or more, the overall audit rate was 14.5%, down from 15.3% for FY 2008.
For partnership and S corporation returns, the audit rate was .4%, the same as for the year before.

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