The IRS is cracking down on the wealthiest taxpayers, announcing on Friday that the agency will pursue 1,600 millionaires who owe at least $250k each in overdue taxes, with “dozens” of revenue officers focusing on the millionaires who haven’t coughed up in full.
Death and taxes
Nothing is certain except death and taxes, or so the saying goes, but in the last decade or so, your chance of being audited by the IRS has dropped precipitously — particularly if you’re a millionaire. In 2012, the IRS carefully combed through the tax affairs of some 41,000 individuals who had reported more than $1 million in earnings. In 2019, however, just ~14,000 got the same treatment, and in 2020 the number fell to a low of 11,331.
What are my chances?
It's not just millionaires that are getting audited less — rates have dropped across the board since 2010 as the number of IRS agents fell from ~14,700 in 2010 to just 8,350 in 2020. All told, the agency audited 3.8 tax returns out of every 1,000 in 2022, giving the typical citizen a 0.38% chance of being audited. Although the rates have fallen, millionaires were still the most likely to get "looked into", with 2.4% of those earning $1m+ getting audited.
