IRS auditing more and more millionaires

Millionaires beware: The IRS has become more interested in you. If you’re pulling in less than $200,000, there’s not much to worry about. However, as the Los Angeles Times reports, the Internal Revenue Service says in an enforcement report that it audited 12.5% of wealthy taxpayers in fiscal 2011—up pretty significantly from 8% in 2010 and 6% in 2009. About 4% of those earning $200,000 and up were audited, up from 3% the year before. But for the last five years, the agency has mostly left returns showing less than $200,000 in income alone, with around 1% facing audits. Same goes for companies. Businesses with $250 million in assets have a 27.6% audit rate compared to 1% of firms with less than $10 million in assets. Of 141 million individual returns filed last year—more than three-quarters submitted electronically—there were 1.56 million audits total, according to the IRS. Of those, only about a quarter result in in-person visits from tax officials. The IRS’s enforcement process led to taxpayers paying out an additional $55.2 billion last year. The agency also seized 776 pieces of property and used property liens 1 million times.