The Return of the "Audit from Hell?"

The Internal Revenue Service announced plans to institute a new National Research Program to develop better audit selection approaches and reduce the purported $300 billion tap gap. In October, 13,000 taxpayers will be selected for an 2006 tax audit and a new "rolling three-year period" approach will allow the IRS to annually update its compliance and workload plans. Each following year, a similar number of returns will be audited.

I already extend sympathies for the taxpayers who will receive the October letters and hope that the IRS will at minimum be more personable than during the dreaded TCMP audits of the 1980s. Hopefully, the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights and National Taxpayers Advocate can protect taxpayers from some of the TCMP excesses.