Paul Coverdell: “A random audit is like Russian roulette. A random audit means the IRS, even though your return reflects no discrepancy…”

“A random audit is like Russian roulette. A random audit means the IRS, even though your return reflects no discrepancy, can reach in, pick it out with no cause and suddenly be banging on your door. This ought not to happen in America. The IRS should not be conducting random audits. I introduced legislation last week that will prohibit the use of random audits. We are told they are not being conducted, but they are. So we are going to legislate so they do not. I am very hopeful that at the end of the day, the work of the Senator from Wyoming, myself, and others will address the issue of random audits in the final legislation. This report that I received from the General Accounting Office shows that 47 percent of these random audits were occurring in 11 Southern States--47 percent in 11 Southern States. That only represents 29 percent of our population, and that 85 percent of the random audits were directed at people who make $25,000 or less--$25,000 or less.”