Joseph Perry, Partner-in-Charge, Tax & Business Services, Quoted in Bloomberg Article "IRS Audit Rate Nears 30% for Those Making $10 Million and Up"
Bloomberg
By Richard Rubin and Margaret Collins
Excerpt:
Joe Perry, partner-in-charge of tax services at the accounting firm Marcum LLP in New York, said he has seen a ten- fold increase in clients being audited, including at least five under the more intense scrutiny of a new IRS task force that is targeting high net-worth taxpayers.
“Those are very time consuming and costly,” said Perry, who represents several clients with incomes exceeding $10 million. “It’s worse than a root canal.”
The IRS is quicker to audit individual returns than in the past, sometimes contacting people within months of their return being filed, Perry said.
In some cases, the IRS requires taxpayers to produce and prove every item on their return including such things as their children’s Social Security numbers. Perry said the firm has also seen an increase in so-called correspondence audits, where the IRS will send a letter asking a taxpayer to verify a specific item on the return such as charitable deductions.
