How Many IRS Audits Per Year? Rates, Triggers, and Trends

The IRS closed about 505,500 tax return audits in fiscal year 2024, and with more than 160 million individual returns filed annually, the overall individual audit rate sits near 0.2%.¹² That works out to roughly two returns in every thousand. But the number of IRS audits per year is not distributed evenly, and the average is a poor stand-in for your personal odds, which change sharply based on income, entity type, and what you claim on your return.

How the Annual Audit Number Has Changed

The headline volume has been shrinking. The 505,514 examinations closed in FY 2024 covered all return types combined, down from roughly 626,000 individual-return audits alone in FY 2022.¹³ Zoom out further and the drop is even sharper: the overall individual audit rate was about 0.9% in 2010.

Fewer audits have not meant smaller results. FY 2024 examinations produced more than $29 billion in recommended additional tax, and total recommended additional tax and assessments reached $36.8 billion, with $23 billion of that coming from field examinations of complex returns.¹ The IRS is running fewer audits but concentrating them where the dollars are.

Your Odds Depend on Your Income

Income is the single biggest predictor of whether a return gets examined. The IRS Data Book breaks out examination coverage for Tax Year 2022, the most recent published year:²

Under $25,000: 0.4%
$25,000 to $49,999: 0.2%
$50,000 to $99,999: 0.1%
$100,000 to $199,999: 0.1%
$200,000 to $499,999: 0.1%
$500,000 to $999,999: 0.6%
$1 million to $4,999,999: 1.1%
$5 million to $9,999,999: 3.1%
$10 million or more: 4.0%
No total positive income: 0.3%

Two patterns matter. The middle band from $50,000 to $500,000 is the safest zone, with roughly 1 in 1,000 returns audited. And the escalation at the top is steep: a filer earning over $10 million is about 40 times more likely to be audited than someone in that middle band.

Those Data Book figures are snapshots that grow over time as the IRS opens additional audits within the statute-of-limitations window. When enforcement across the full window is counted, the IRS reports the TY 2019 audit rate for filers with $10 million or more in income reached 11.0%, and the rate for those between $1 million and $5 million rose to 1.6%.¹

Why Low-Income Filers Get Audited More Than Middle-Income Filers

The elevated rate for filers under $25,000 and those with no positive income looks strange until you look at what’s driving it: refundable credits, especially the Earned Income Tax Credit. The IRS has historically run around 350,000 to 500,000 EITC correspondence audits per year to verify eligibility.⁴ These are mail-based checks, cheap to run, and they inflate the audit rate at the bottom of the income distribution.³

Audit Rates for Businesses

Business filers face different odds depending on entity type. Sole proprietors reporting on Schedule C see higher rates than most individual filers, because the income is self-reported, there’s no employer withholding, and expense claims can be subjective. The IRS looks harder at Schedule C returns for that reason.

Partnerships and S corporations have historically been examined at very low rates, around 0.1% or less. That is beginning to shift. The IRS opened examinations of 82 of the largest U.S. partnerships and has projected that audit rates for pass-through entities with $10 million or more in assets would reach 1% for 2026 tax returns.⁵

Large C corporations live in a different world. IRS data shows that corporations with assets between $1 billion and $5 billion have historically been audited at rates above 16%, and those with over $20 billion in assets see rates above 50%.⁶ At that scale audits are routine.

What Actually Triggers an Audit

The IRS uses a mix of automated scoring and human review to pick returns.⁷ The core tool is the Discriminant Information Function, or DIF, which scores every return against statistical norms for filers with similar income and characteristics. Returns that fall far from those norms get flagged.

On top of DIF, the IRS runs a document-matching program. Employers, banks, and brokerages report the income they paid you, and the IRS compares those reports to what you filed. When the numbers disagree, the agency typically sends a CP 2000 notice proposing an adjustment.⁸ A CP 2000 is not technically an audit, and it is not a bill. It is the IRS asking you to explain a gap.

For returns claiming refundable credits like the EITC, a separate automated system called the Dependent Database flags potential noncompliance before selection for correspondence audit.⁹

Line Items That Draw Extra Attention

Some entries move the needle more than others. Large charitable deductions relative to income, especially for property like art or real estate where valuation is subjective, consistently draw scrutiny. Reporting business losses year after year suggests an activity may be a hobby rather than a trade or business. Cash-intensive businesses like restaurants and salons see additional attention because the IRS relies on bank deposit analysis and industry benchmarks to test reported revenue.

Digital assets are an expanding focus. The IRS now requires a digital asset question on individual returns, and broker reporting via Form 1099-DA is being phased in. Under Notice 2026-20, the IRS extended temporary relief allowing taxpayers to identify which digital asset lots they sold using their own records rather than broker-reported data, though that relief does not eliminate reporting obligations.

What Kind of Audit Those Numbers Represent

When people picture an audit, they usually picture a revenue agent at the kitchen table. Most audits are nothing like that.

Correspondence audits happen entirely by mail. The IRS asks you to substantiate one or two items, and you respond with documentation. About 85% of individual return audits fall in this category.³
Office audits bring you into a local IRS office to meet with an examiner. These handle issues too complex for mail but not big enough for a field visit.
Field audits send a revenue agent to your home, business, or accountant’s office to review records in person. They are reserved for the most complex returns and produce most of the enforcement dollars: $23 billion of $36.8 billion in FY 2024.¹

So the 505,500 figure is heavily weighted toward mail audits of relatively narrow issues, not sit-down examinations of your whole return.

Where the Numbers Are Heading

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provided the IRS with new funding aimed at increasing enforcement against high-income individuals, complex partnerships, and large corporations. The agency committed to not raising audit rates above historical levels for taxpayers earning under $400,000.

That plan has run into staffing losses. As of March 2025, the IRS had lost more than 11,000 employees, an 11% reduction in its workforce. The cuts hit enforcement hardest: 3,623 revenue agents, roughly 31% of the people who conduct audits, are gone. The Pass-Through Entities Program that examines large partnerships lost more than 20% of its staff by the end of December 2025.⁵ Congress has also pursued rescission of unobligated IRA funds allocated to the IRS.

The practical effect is unsettled. Alongside opening exams of 82 of the largest partnerships, the IRS launched a letter campaign targeting 483 partnerships with balance sheet discrepancies, then decided not to pursue audits based on those letters because of resource limits and expiring statutes of limitations.⁵ Whether the yearly audit count holds steady or keeps sliding with a third fewer auditors is an open question heading into 2026.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Compliance Presence
2
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Data Book 2024
3
Congress.gov. Distribution of IRS Audits by Income and Race
4
Internal Revenue Service. The Effects of EITC Correspondence Audits on Low-Income Earners
5
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. The IRS Has Yet to Develop a Successful Strategy for Examining Large Partnership Returns
6
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Statement – Updated IRS Audit Numbers
7
U.S. Government Accountability Office. IRS Return Selection – Improved Planning, Internal Controls, and Data Would Enhance Large Business Division Efforts to Implement New Compliance Approach
8
Taxpayer Advocate Service. Notice CP 2000 – Request for Verification of Unreported Income, Payments, and/or Credits
9
U.S. Government Accountability Office. Tax Enforcement – IRS Audit Selection Processes for Returns Claiming Refundable Credits Could Better Address Equity