The IRS launched the Large Business and International Division’s high-wealth industry group (“HNW Initiative”) in October 2009 with the purpose of examining high-net worth individuals for income tax compliance. But the Service may be “using more rhetoric than resources,” according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). TRAC’s April 14 report, based on information compiled from public records, accuses the IRS of having “very skimpy” audit goals for the HNW initiative.

TRAC’s report indicates that the HNW initiative plans on auditing only 122 returns for the 2011 fiscal year and claims that it will fail to meet even this modest target. According to the report, the IRS will meet only 19% of its audit objectives for the first six months of 2011.

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For previous coverage of Tax Court Rulings in Advisor’s Journal, see Tax Court Revives Partnership Self-Employment Tax Debate (CC 11-56), Tax Court Calculates FMV of Policies Distributed from Terminated 419 Plan (CC 11-35), and Tax Court Holds Employee Taxable for Value of Life Insurance Owned by Welfare-Benefit Plan (CC 11-14).

For in-depth analysis on filing income tax returns, see Advisor’s Main Library: G – Income Tax Procedure.