IRS issues fewer agency audits aimed at large corporations, according to new TRAC report

IRS issues fewer agency audits aimed at large corporations, according to new TRAC reportApril 13, 2005Jaime Winne Alvarez jlwinne@syr.edu

New IRS data show fewer agency audits aimed at large corporations providing investment advice, banking and credit services and insurance, compared tocorporations in other businesses. The disparities, documented in previously undisclosed data obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at SU, concern corporations with $250 million or more in assets.

The data were part of TRAC’s 10th annual report on the IRS. TRAC was established in 1989 to provide the American people, oversight institutions, news organizations and others with comprehensive information about the activities of the federal government and the communities in which these activities take place.

At one extreme are the large corporations providing financial services. Less than one in five were audited in FY 2002, 2003 and 2004. At the other extreme are the large corporations involved in agriculture, mining and construction, or heavy manufacturing and transportation. There, 100 percent were audited during the same time period.

Considered as a whole, the corporations with $250 million or more in assets are a major force in the economy, controlling 90 percent of all corporate assets and 87 percent of all corporate income. Despite their dominant role, the new IRS data document that on an overall basis only about one in three were audited.

Other data show that despite recent IRS claims that it is vigorously enforcing tax laws, the audit rate for all corporations has continued to decline along with face-to-face audits of wealthy taxpayers.

To view TRAC’s IRS Report, visit http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/index.html. TRAC obtains much of its data through use of the Freedom of Information Act. Its data and findings are made available through its public Web site. For more information, contact TRAC co-directors David Burnham and Susan Long at (315) 443-3563.