IRS Increases Audits on Wealthy, Collections Up After Enforcement

WASHINGTON -- The Internal Revenue Service is making it riskier to cheat on your taxes.

The tax agency increased the number of returns it audited by nearly 11 percent this year.

Statistics released Wednesday show that wealthy taxpayers were most likely to be targeted.

In all, the IRS examined more than 1.58 million individual returns in the budget year that ended in September, up from 1.43 million the year before.

The IRS collected $57.6 billion through enforcement actions, an 18 percent increase from the previous year.

Overall, a little more than 1 percent of returns were audited, either by mail or in person. More than 8 percent of the returns with incomes above $1 million were audited.