from SLATE, April 16, 2000: >The New York Times leads with a study showing that last year, for the >first time, the IRS was more likely to audit the poor than the rich. ... >The IRS stories detail a new Syracuse University study showing that audit >rates for those making $100,000 or more have fallen 90 percent over the >past decade, from 11.4 percent to 1.15 percent. Meanwhile, audit rates for >those making less than $25,000 have crept up by a third, from 1.03 percent >to 1.36 percent. The pattern is mirrored on the corporate side, with a >greater portion of small businesses being audited than large ones. Audits >of individuals fell for the right reasons: because more of their pay is >fully reported by employers, and because Congress has eliminated the >widest loopholes for individual filers. But audits of corporations and >the self-employed fell for the wrong ones: because Congress has stiffed >the IRS of the resources necessary to do its job. The Times (the online >edition, at least) helpfully refers readers to the study itself, posted >here <www.trac.syr.edu>. of course, this is exactly the result that the rich were pushing for when the marched on Washington (to Congressional committee sessions) to protest abuses by the IRS. happy tax day! Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~JDevine
