Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Mark Everson said that he's happy with the agency's enforcement efforts for the 2006 fiscal year - with tax collections totaling some $48.7 billion.Following a 10 percent year-over-year boost in enforcement revenues for 2005, to $47.3 billion, the IRS collected $48.7 billion in 2006, a nearly 3 percent increase. Everson said that exam dollars were down slightly this year because of a bump from the Son of Boss initiative in 2005, and also noted that the IRS continued to focus on auditing the returns of wealthier individuals. For the 2006 year, millionaires faced a 1-in-16 chance of an audit.
Among the agency's other audit enforcement statistics for 2006:
- Total individual returns audited increased by over 6 percent, to nearly 1.3 million, the most since 1998;
- Audits of individuals with income over $1 million increased to more than 17,000, a nearly 33 percent increase from a year ago; and,
- Audits of individuals with incomes over $100,000 increased to more than 257,000, an 18 percent jump from a year ago.
Everson also reported an increase in IRS efforts to review S corporations and partnerships (increasing 34 percent and 15 percent, respectively), while its activity involving small business and large corporations remained relatively the same. The exempt-organization area audited 7,079 returns in 2006, an increase of 43 percent.
