U.S. Treasury officials blamed the Internal Revenue Service's outsized number of audits on low-income households on severe underfunding of the agency by Congress.
Audits on filers with higher net worth require more time and expertise, and the agency's underfunding has led to a significant loss of personnel capable of performing those, senior Treasury officials told reporters in a telephone conference Friday.
They were responding to a study from Syracuse University showing households making less than $25,000 were almost three times as likely to get audited in tax year 2021 than those making $200,000 to $1 million.
The numbers prompted two Democratic lawmakers to write a letter to IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig demanding an explanation.
