We've told you before about the mammoth "tax gap"-- the difference between what Americans ought to pay in federal taxes and the amount that they actually pay:
The IRS even publishes a tax gap map, which identifies the sources of the missing revenue.
We've posted about the federal budget sequester and the craziness of cutting the IRS budget if you're a deficit hawk. Now, on the eve of the federal tax filing deadline, the Associated Press reports that taxpayers "chances of getting audited are lower than they have been in years." Why? Budget cuts. Go here to see your chances of getting audited last year (less than 1% for most taxpayers). And IRS commissioner John Koskinen says that the number of audits will go down this year. Automated systems catch the most obvious cheating by wage earners, but, as Koskinen says, “We keep going after the people who look like the worst of the bad guys, But there are going to be some people that we should catch, either in terms of collecting the revenue from them or prosecuting them, that we’re not going to catch.”