IRS Audit Rate on the Rich Collapses

IRS Audit Rate on the Rich Collapses
Source: Forbes
Ashlea Ebeling Forbes Staff

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audited only 0.59% of individual income tax returns last year, (nearly half of the annual norm), the lowest audit rate since 2002. A closer look shows it’s the highest earners whose audit rate has dropped the most? IRS 2018 Data Book

For the highest-income taxpayers—returns showing AGI of $10 million or more--the audit rate dropped from 14.52% in 2017 to just 6.66% in the 2018 report.

For households with AGI between $5 million to $10 million, the audit rate dropped from 7.95% to 4.21%.

For households with AGI between $1 million to $5 million, the audit rate dropped from 3.52% to 2.21%.

For households with AGI between $500,000 to $1 million, the audit rate dropped from 1.56% to 1.1%.

For households with AGI between $200,000 to $500,000, the audit rate dropped from 0.70% to 0.53%.

By comparison, for households with AGI under $200,000, the audit rate dropped slightly, stayed the same, or climbed (from 0.48% to 0.54% for $50,000 to $75,000 AGI households).

The report covers data from returns filed in the calendar year 2017 and audits in the fiscal year 2018. The nearly 1 million audits the IRS completed included more than 892,000 individual income tax returns.