Why isn't everyone audited?

Think of all the additional offices the IRS would have to open and all the employees they would have to hire if they spent one hour with each taxpayer.

Also consider the additional burden upon the IRS for the handling and processing of all the 2848's (Power of Attorney) from people who don't want to meet with the an IRS Agent.

Dick

The manpower to audit every single return like that would be prohibitive. Given the routine nature of most returns, it makes a lot more economic sense for computers to evaluate every return and kick out a more manageable number for human review.

SHHHH!!!!!!!

sell you an item worth just a few dollars. With the IRS, you are sending them tens of thousands of dollars, yet never have any human interaction?!!

few simple questions they could easily determine if something fishy is going on or not. Then they can recommend you for further auditing.

amount of money you send them!

Your analogy is highly flawed.

First, it is not correct that "someone will gladly spend their time to sell you an item worth just a few dollars". Where did you do your research, the Dollar Store?

Second, many people send far more dollars to their mortgage holder or pre-tax health care provider every month than they send to the taxman. Neither the bank nor the health insurance company expects to meet with you in person for an hour every year just to receive your mortgage or premium payment. The tax payment is no different, it is just deducted from your paycheck.

wrote

Just because "service" is in their name "Internal Revenue Service", doesn't mean they provide service to everyone. Nor does it mean they should or that people want them to.

In 2009, over 104,000,000 individual tax returns were filed. At an hour each and 2,000 person-hours per year, that would require 52,000 new employees (208,000 temps during filing season). Payroll and benefits would exceed $2.6 billion per year.

So tax cheats could justify their behavior as "job creators". :)

Well, that would make less than half a percent difference in the employment rate, so not a huge deal from that standpoint.

___ Stu

Don't they essentially do a quick audit on pretty much every return anyway by computer matching forms they got from others with what your forms say?Or am I overstating the case?

The gov't is actually paying a lot of people to NOT audit returns.

Not for quite a while.

When someone submits a 1040 in February, the W-2s and 1099s are not likley to be avaialble to IRS databases until August at best.

However, and driven by a rapidly growing idenity theft problem, they are coming up with only partly effective initial screening techniques.

I'm trying to figure out how to get them to pay me for not growing tomatoes.

___ Stu

In article , snipped-for-privacy@panix.com (Arthur Kamlet) wrote: \

Interesting. The last two years I have gotten notices asking What The Heck Happened Here. The first was when Schwab decided to list bonds that had come due a different way that the IRS apparently did not recognize and the other when I had a couple of DRIP stocks I sold with "various" as the time I bought them while Schwab on the report form treated each one separately. The number of shares sold and the basis was exactly the same, but the computer, and then a person decided to ask me more. In both cases, it was easily explained. K

That doesn't mean they don't do computer audits, just that they are after-the-fact. (that is, after refunds are issued).

Further, while annual dollar amounts might not be audited in real-time (yet), they do match on employer ID's, taxpayer ID's, (duplicate) dependent ID's etc. That is something, at least.

Obviously the mandate to efile almost all returns is critical to even the most basic timely computer auditing.

Well, there's your problem - you're not growing the wrong crop. You have to not grow corn, wheat, cotton or soybean to get subsidies.

Computers can't evaluate a person's honesty. Like I said if you buy a pair of shoes someone will spend as much time as you need to help you. But the IRS wants no human interaction despite you sending them tens of thousands of dollars a year! Am I the only person who finds that incredibly odd?

Basically it is an honor type system. But since so few people are audited, most people underpay their taxes. Also tax laws are beyond the understanding of a reasonable person. Sure you can hire a CPA, but why would you pay someone to tell you how much you have to pay? See the irony there.

That's why I think the IRS needs to do some human auditing of most everyone's returns. Paying taxes is as old as the hills. I am not sure how we evolved to this faceless way of paying taxes.

The IRS used to (for a while at least) be much more consumer friendly. But Congress recently cut the IRS budget, so that it's much more difficult for them to do their jobs. Just because the IRS takes in money doesn't mean they get to use it.

On Wed, 17 Jan 2018 11:50:20 EST, Faraz H wrote in

I don't believe that's true; at least not intentionally. I think most people do the best they can with a complex tax code and honestly pay what they calculate they owe.

A business has an incentive to make your experience pleasurable, as it encourages you to give them more business in the future.

The IRS doesn't need to encourage you to pay your taxes by being helpful, since you're required by law to pay your taxes.

Most people don't want to be audited, why are you encouraging it? It's often interpreted as accusing them of dishonesty.

BTW, 99% of the time when I go into a store I don't need the assistance of a salesperson. If I want help I'll ask for it. Usually it's just "Which aisle is the detergent in?"