WSJ: IRS to Increase Audits Next Year

Interesting Wall Street Journal article, IRS to Increase Audits Next Year; Stepping Up Crackdown on Tax Shelters, Agency Is Likely to Focus on Trusts, Overseas Accounts, by Tom Herman & Rachel Emma Silverman:

The IRS, intensifying its crackdown on tax dodgers, plans to increase the number of tax audits it conducts next year. The agency will focus more of its resources investigating taxpayers with incomes of $100,000 and above. Agents will also examine more returns of high-income taxpayers in search of what they call abusive shelters, or transactions with no real economic purpose other than dodging taxes. The agency will devote particular attention to abusive transactions involving parking money in offshore accounts.

While IRS officials won't discuss specifics of audit targets, they are expected to focus more on self-employed workers who deal largely in cash. Congress recently raised the IRS budget to $10.68 billion, which includes an increase in money earmarked for enforcement activities.