One of my good friends in NC was a retired IRS auditor... in the days before electronic filing was as easy as a link from Paypal away, there were audit budgets, as Nick put it.
Filing an extension in a plain white envelope you addressed to the IRS yourself with a check for at least part of what you owed and then waiting til Aug 15 to post mark your return was the best way to NOT get audited...
The envelopes included with the return packets were bar coded to produce random results; filers are divided into categories like self-employed, construction, etc and allotments based on these categories were filled early, leaving much fewer slots for stragglers to get a 'random' audit.
I'm not sure how it works with the more electronic systems in place now, but I know it's not random
Oh and yes, I got one... seems one of my employers failed to send my w2 as instructed...
Last edited by *KK* at Apr 16 2003, 11:42 PM
04-17-2003
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