If you have ever been audited by IRS, you are not going to be happy with the information given in the November 26, 2006, edition of the NY TIMES.  The Internal Revenue Service reports a sharp increase in the number of tax audits for the fiscal year that ended September 30 and warned high earners that they will continue to face scrutiny in the coming year.  It was pointed out that “almost one out of every 16 taxpayers who earned $1 million or more faced audits last year.  This is a 33 percent increase over the previous year.”   More importantly, IRS also “audited last year 257,000 taxpayers with incomes over $100,000; that is an increase of 18 percent” and "... the most in more than a decade." 

Last year alone, nearly 1.3 million individual returns were audited.   Mark W. Everson, The I.R.S. Commissioner, said the agency would continue to investigate high-income taxpayers to maintain "faith" in the system.  "If you earn more than $100,000 or you're a millionaire," he said, "you're a lot more likely to be audited these days than just a few years ago."