What percentage of tax returns get audited?

About 0.3 percent of individual returns for tax year 2021, per the FY2025 IRS Data Book, roughly 1 in 330. The rate varies enormously by income: 0.2 percent for most middle-income brackets, 0.9 percent at $1 million to $5 million, and 6.6 percent above $10 million.

Are most IRS audits done by mail?

Yes. Of individual audits closed in fiscal year 2025, 89 percent were correspondence audits conducted entirely by mail, and for audits of EITC claimants the mail share was 99 percent. Field audits concentrate on complex, higher-income returns.

Has the IRS audit rate gone down?

Substantially. Individual coverage fell from about 1.0 percent for tax year 2010 to about 0.3 percent for tax year 2021, a roughly two-thirds decline that GAO attributes primarily to reduced staffing, with the steepest drops at incomes above $200,000.

Is a CP2000 notice an audit?

No. CP2000 underreporter notices come from the separate Automated Underreporter program, which computer-matches returns against third-party forms; the IRS closed 987,460 such cases in fiscal 2025, roughly double the number of actual audits. An audit is a formal examination; a CP2000 is a proposed adjustment you can respond to.

IRS Audit Statistics: Who Actually Gets Audited

Name: IRS Individual Audit Rates by Income Level and Tax Year
Creator: ClearChoiceRadar
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The IRS audited about 0.3 percent of individual returns for tax year 2021, roughly 1 in 330. But the average hides the real story: the rate is 0.2 percent through most of the income scale, then climbs past 6 percent above $10 million, and EITC claimants are audited at more than triple the rate of six-figure earners. Every figure below comes from the IRS's own FY2025 Data Book, released June 2026.

0.3%

of individual returns audited, tax year 2021 (498,386 exams of 161.2 million returns)

89%

of individual audits closed in FY2025 were by mail, not in person

$11.3B

additional tax recommended from individual exams closed in FY2025

Audit coverage by tax year: a two-thirds decline

Share of individual returns examined, by the tax year audited. IRS Data Book Table 3-1, as of September 30, 2025. Hatched years remain open under the audit statute and will rise.

1.0

'10

0.9

'11

0.8

'12

0.7

'13

0.6

'14

0.6

'15

0.5

'16

0.5

'17

0.4

'18

0.3

'19

0.3

'20

0.3

'21

0.3

'22*

0.1

'23*

* Preliminary: tax years 2022 and 2023 are still within the normal 3 year audit statute, so their final rates will be higher than shown. GAO's 2022 review attributed the long decline primarily to reduced staffing, and found rates fell most for incomes above $200,000, where audits require experienced examiners.

Audit rate by income, tax year 2021

Share of returns examined by size of total positive income. IRS Data Book Table 3-1 (FY2025 edition).

No positive income

1.8%

$1 to $25k

0.5%

$25k to $50k

0.2%

$50k to $75k

0.2%

$75k to $100k

0.2%

$100k to $200k

0.2%

$200k to $500k

0.2%

$500k to $1M

0.6%

$1M to $5M

0.9%

$5M to $10M

3.9%

$10M or more

6.6%

The "no positive income" bracket is mostly returns reporting large losses, business and investment filers, not zero-income households. Separately, returns claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit were audited at 0.7 percent, more than three times the 0.2 percent rate of $200,000 to $500,000 earners, and 99 percent of those EITC audits were conducted by mail.

What an "audit rate" actually measures

The Data Book counts examinations by the tax year audited, closed or in process as of the edition's cutoff. Because the IRS generally has three years to open an audit, recent tax years always look lower than they will end up; that is why 2022 and 2023 are marked preliminary above, and why tax year 2021 is the newest year the IRS itself describes as outside the normal statute period. A separate table counts audits closed per fiscal year: 441,578 individual exams closed in FY2025, recommending $11.3 billion in additional tax, $7.5 billion of it from mail audits.

Most "IRS letters" are not audits. The Automated Underreporter program, which computer-matches your return against W-2s and 1099s and sends CP2000 notices, closed 987,460 cases in FY2025, roughly double the number of real audits, and automated substitute-for-return cases added 592,773 more. If you received an IRS notice, our notice decoder identifies what it actually is before you assume the worst.

The policy backdrop, documented

In 2022, the Treasury directed that new enforcement funding not be used to raise audit rates for households under $400,000 relative to historical levels, and the IRS repeated that commitment in 2023, treating tax year 2018 rates as the baseline. Since then, the documented changes run the other direction: Congress rescinded $41.8 billion of the original $79.4 billion in supplemental IRS funding, all of it from enforcement, and TIGTA reports that about 30 percent of the IRS workforce separated between January 2025 and January 2026, including roughly a third of revenue agents, the employees who conduct audits. What that means for future audit rates is not yet in any data book; the staffing and funding facts are simply what the record shows so far.

What this means if you owe

Low audit rates are not low collection rates. Collection notices, liens, and levies run on a separate, largely automated track from examinations, which is why balance-due taxpayers hear from the IRS far more often than audit statistics would suggest; our IRS collections statistics page charts that machinery. If a real audit or underreporter notice does land, deadlines drive everything; the notice decoder covers the common letters and what each one wants from you.

Frequently asked questions

What are my odds of being audited?

For tax year 2021, about 1 in 330 overall, but income changes the odds dramatically: about 1 in 500 through most middle brackets, 1 in 110 at $1 million to $5 million, and 1 in 15 above $10 million. Claiming the EITC raises the odds to about 1 in 140, almost entirely by mail audit.

How many years back can the IRS audit?

Generally three years from filing, extended to six for substantial understatements of income, and unlimited where fraud or a missing return is involved. This statute window is also why recent-year audit rates in the Data Book keep rising for a few editions before finalizing.

Why are EITC audits so common?

They are cheap: correspondence audits of refundable-credit claims are automated and require little examiner time, while auditing high-income returns takes experienced staff. GAO found exactly that pattern behind the decade's audit-rate decline, with the steepest drops above $200,000.

Does a high audit rate mean more tax collected?

Not proportionally. Individual exams closed in FY2025 recommended $11.3 billion in additional tax across 441,578 audits, but recommended tax is not collected tax, and the automated underreporter program assessed $5.9 billion more with no audits at all.

Facing the IRS with a balance you cannot pay?

Audit or no audit, unpaid balances move through an escalating collection process with real deadlines. Compare companies that negotiate with the IRS, and understand the options yourself first.

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Cite this data

Free to cite with attribution: ClearChoiceRadar, "IRS Audit Statistics," compiled from the FY2025 IRS Data Book, https://clearchoiceradar.com/industries/tax-relief/irs-audit-statistics/

Sources: IRS Data Book (Pub 55-B), FY2025 edition, Tables 3-1 and 3-2; IRS Compliance Presence; GAO-22-104960; Treasury directive, Aug. 10, 2022; TIGTA 2026-IE-R009; TIGTA 2025-IE-R026. General information only, not tax advice. Data reflects the FY2025 Data Book, released June 2026; next update expected with the FY2026 edition.