Section 2 of the Data Book deals with IRS examinations (audits) of returns to determine if income, expenses, and credits are being reported accurately. The IRS enforces the tax law in a number of ways; the more common methods include correspondence (examination by mail) and field (face-to-face audit) examinations. This section provides information about examinations of most types of tax returns such as income tax, estate and gift tax, employment tax, and excise tax. Information is also provided about examinations of tax-exempt organizations.
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Highlights of the Data
- The IRS audited almost 1.1 million tax returns, approximately 0.5 percent of all returns filed in Calendar Year 2016 (Table 9a).
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IRS conducted the majority of Fiscal Year 2017 audits, 70.8 percent, via correspondence. The remaining 29.2 percent were conducted in the field (Table 9a).
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Of the almost 1.1 million examinations of tax returns, almost 34,000 resulted in additional refunds to the taxpayer totaling more than $6.0 billion (Table 12).
Enforcement: Examinations: Tables 9–13
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