IRS AUDITING MORE, UNLESS YOU'RE RICH
So my tax guy was right. When I talked to him in December, he said he'd noticed a sudden increase in audits. Now USA Today reports that last year, the "IRS reversed a long, sharp slide in the number of taxpayers facing audits." The increases came for those in the low- to middle-income categories, while those making more than $100,000 were audited less frequently.

Not that I have anything to hide, but I fear another evil letter from the IRS. I got several a decade ago. The language from the get-go was terse, accusatory and demanding. I had to send off to the Czech Republic for income verification and dig through years-old boxes of files for other proof that I had almost no income the year I lived in Prague and that my employer paid my income taxes there. I mailed it all in with a very timid letter asking if this was enough proof. And I never heard from them again.

I assumed they'd come after me at some point, since about 20 editors from my college paper were mysteriously audited within a three- or four-year period. Each was making about $8,000 to $15,000 a year (I calculated my hourly salary at 65 cents) but somehow the IRS saw fit to audit a bunch of low-paid 20-year-olds at a spunky college paper. What a coincidence! However it happened, they got my number and I just assume there's a perpetual flag on my file.

- posted by Amy @ 3/01/2002 09:42:00 AM