TaxAuditQuestions

Audits are avoidable: From outlandish charitable giving to claiming a home office, there are a host of specific thing that can set of warning bells with the IRS. Here are the things the IRS looks for, and tips to help you avoid its scrutiny.

In 2008, about 1.4 million taxpayers were chosen for audit. This represents about 1% of the 140 million tax returns filed -- pretty good odds. Of those, about two-thirds were correspondence, or "paper" audits, and the remaining one third were field or "in person" audits. Even though the numbers of...