For millions of Americans that file their own taxes, their biggest secret fear is the dreaded a-word. But how likely is it at that you will be audited by the IRS this year, and what, if anything, can you do to reduce those chances?

The Targets

The IRS has a limited staff and a limited amount of time and resources committed to audits, so it must be selective about the targets it chooses.

High-income earners are the ones that should be paying the largest amount of taxes. Therefore, the IRS tends to focus on higher-income taxpayers when it comes time choose who get audited. Overall, less than 1.0% of filers were audited last year. Less than 0.55% of taxpayers that reported income ranging between $25,000 and $99,999 were audited. That percentage jumps to 16% among those that reported income of greater than $10 million.

On the other end of the income range, 5.2% of filers that reported no adjusted gross income were audited as well. The safest place to be on the income scale is somewhere in the middle.

Audit Numbers Falling

The good news for taxpayers is…

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