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Originally Posted by Exhibitman
Logical but not true. Per the Motley Fool, in 2022, there were 12.7 audits per 1,000 returns filed by the lowest-income wage earners (making it a 1.27% chance of audit) compared with 3.8 per 1,000 returns filed by all other individual taxpayers. They don't go where the money is, they go where the low-hanging fruit is, and people who cannot fight are the easy ones.
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This is a bit misleading without context, because the higher audit rate for low-income earners is heavily skewed by people who claim the refundable Earned Income Tax Credit. And even with a credit so ripe for abuse with manipulated earnings, the IRS made it a point in 2023 to reduce the number of audits that target that group.