WASHINGTON, April 1 (Xinhua) -- A study has showed that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is more likely to target poorer counties as it audits tax returns, with some counties undergoing 40 percent more auditing than the national average.
The study, first published by industry journal Tax Notes and reported Monday by investigative media Propublica, showed that U.S. citizens were disproportionately affected by IRS' policies, and the counties that are most audited are consistently those that are poorer and with high percentage of non-white residents.
The five counties with the highest audit rates are all predominantly African American rural counties in the deep South, and Hispanic counties in South Texas also have high audit rate. In counties with the highest audit rates, there were about 11 audits per 1,000 tax returns, while the national average is about 7.7, the study found.
In the meantime, statistic showed that the states with the lowest audit rates tend to have large middle-income white populations, such as the New England states, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Generally, the IRS audits taxpayers with household income between 50,000 and 100,000 U.S. dollars the least, the study showed.
Kim Bloomquist, a former IRS economist who authored the study, believed that the IRS targeted poorer regions because many of those residents are recipients of the Earned Income Tax Credit, a program aimed at providing tax relief for low-income households.
Democratic lawmaker Terri Sewell said in a response to the study that taxpayers shouldn't be "disproportionately targeted for claiming a certain tax credit" and that Congress "must ensure that the IRS initiates and executes audits in a fair and impartial manner."
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