The IRS audited slightly more than one million individual returns in the year ended Sept. 30, down 16% from the previous year. For 2016, the latest audit rate for those with income under $200,000 was 0.65%, according to an IRS spread sheet. Scoring system: The IRS says it picks some returns to audit based on a secret computerized system that assigns a score to each return. “We compare your tax return against ‘norms’ for similar returns,” the IRS website says. He was formerly The Wall Street Journal’s Tax Report columnist.

Source: Wall Street Journal March 27, 2017 02:39 UTC