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The laws concerning tax evasion are also enforced in a highly irregular manner (again,focusing particularly on the U.S. context). For example, in 2009, the U.S. government authorized the prosecution of only 1,210 criminal tax cases – representing a mere .00086% of the 179.4 million individual tax returns filed in that year. And, where prosecutions do occur, they are often brought in an uneven and highly selective manner.
The tax laws are also enforced in a manner that is arguably unfair (again, focusing on the U.S. experience). As noted above, in 2007, the I.R.S. examined less than one percent of the approximately 179.4 million returns filed. And the thoroughness of these audits has been dropping as well. According to the Independent Transactional Records Clearinghouse, the typical amount of time auditors spend on large corporate audits has decreased by twenty percent in recent years. There are also large disparities from district to district, with residents in the New York metropolitan area, for example, being subject to relatively low rates of audits and prosecution, and residents of California subject to much higher rates.........[Citing TRAC Research].
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