Wealthy individuals in America are now main focus of IRS

Douglas Shulman, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner, stated the company would focus its audits on wealthy individuals and corporations as part of its broader effort to increase enforcement.

His statement at a congressional hearing was a response to the representative Jose Serrano, Democratic chairman of the subcommittee, who pointed at data from Syracuse University. The data shows that the IRS audit rate for millionaires between fiscal 2007 and 2008 fell 19 percent and 39 percent for big corporations from 2005 to 2008. 

The data provided by IRS itself also showed that there was a major drop in audits of corporations with more than $250 million in assets, from 44 percent in 2005 to 27 percent in 2008. Moreover, the service stated, it had audited about 5.6 percent of individuals making more than $1 million in fiscal year 2008, a drop of about 18 percent in from 6.8 percent 2007. 

It should also be mentioned that the U.S. government is now suing UBS AG to retrieve thousands of names of American clients hiding money in secret accounts. However, the Swiss banking giant had agreed to pay a $780 million fine in February to avoid criminal charges. 

The IRS had began a six-month voluntary amnesty program in March, aimed at encouraging individuals and companies evading U.S. taxes to confess in exchange for lower penalties and avoiding the risk of criminal prosecution.