A Look Inside the IRS

Do you get the feeling that despite government assurances that they are doing everything possible to lessen the burden for small business owners, that the IRS is actually targeting small businesses for audits? If so, then you're not alone.

A new IRS study from TRAC-IRS, (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse) a comprehensive, independent and nonpartisan information source about the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from Syracuse University, finds that not only are audits of small businesses increasing but that audits of large businesses are decreasing.

The in-depth report provides charts and graphs providing a wealth of information about how the IRS is operating in practice. It also provides commentary on why the government's stated goals do not line-up with IRS agent practices.

If reading this report piques your interest in IRS practices and procedures-- dig deeper into the TRAC-IRS site. In it you'll find reports on IRS activity by state and locality including the audit rates for individuals and businesses, IRS collection activities, IRS prosecutions and convictions. You'll also find a listing and description of the most common criminal statutes used by the IRS and the odds of criminal referral based on IRS District.

Also of interest is the Tax Returns by County data center. This portion of the site provides data on a county-by-county basis for tax years 1991-2008. You can use it to benchmark your own income and tax debt against others in your community. You can also use it for demographic research to help decide upon regions in which to market your goods and services.

Learning more about IRS activities can be both good business defense and good marketing offense. Check out TRAC—IRS today.