Heads up for another one of IRS’s random selections of individual tax returns for an in-depth examination in order to update their top secret DIF scoring program to select the tax returns with the highest likelihood of cheating. 

According to this announcement from IRS, this go-around should be less burdensome than their previous such studies, with much fewer returns being selected than had been used in the past; 13,000 lucky taxpayers instead of the more common 45,000.

I understand how this may be a necessary evil of the tax system; but one aspect of it still reeks of unfairness. Those folks lucky enough to be among the 13,000 randomly selected to assist IRS in this study will still have to personally bear the full cost of going through the audit process, which can easily run into several thousands of dollars in professional fees, to say nothing of any additional taxes that may be assessed as a result. 

I realize that it’s crazy to expect IRS to consider fairness in the equation; but it would dramatically increase any goodwill they ever expect to have if they would reimburse taxpayers for the costs incurred while assisting in an IRS research project.  It just seems proper that the party benefiting from the study should bear the expenses of conducting it.