Don’t get cocky, but chances shrink for IRS audit

that they think they can get away with.”

As Koskinen put it: “If you’re a taxpayer, you don’t want to roll the roulette wheel and have the little white ball land on your number because then we’re not very happy.”

Most people don’t have much of an opportunity to cheat on their taxes because the IRS collects a lot of information to verify taxpayers’ finances. Employers report wages, banks re- port interest, brokerages report capital gains and lenders report mortgage interest.

In 2016, the number of people audited by the IRS dropped by 16 percent from the year before. Just 0.7 percent of individuals were audited, either in person or by mail. That’s the lowest audit rate since 2003.

The higher your income, the more likely you are to be audited. The IRS audited 1.7 percent of returns that reported more than $200,000 in income. Agents audited 5.8 percent of returns that reported more than $1 million in income.

Both audit rates were steep declines from the year before.

Corporate audits were down by 17 percent last year. Just 0.49 percent of corporations were audited, the lowest rate in at least a decade.

Republicans in Congress began cutting money at the IRS after they took control of both the House and Senate in the 2010 elections. They became more enthusiastic about the cuts after it became public that the agency had improperly singled out conservative political groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Koskinen was not at the IRS when the groups were mistreated, but some Republicans have been unhappy with his cooperation in their investigations.

“The IRS collects 93 percent of our nation’s revenue. You cannot increase defense spending and cut IRS funding at the same time. It does not add up,” said Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents IRS workers.