IRS & Enforcement
Audit triggers, enforcement actions, compliance requirements, reporting thresholds, IRS technology changes, and taxpayer rights.
Latest in IRS & Enforcement
The IRS may owe you money from COVID-era penalties — but you have to file a paper form by July 10 or lose it forever
Millions of Americans paid late-filing penalties, late-payment penalties, or interest charges to the IRS during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, an independent...
Tens of millions of taxpayers may qualify for IRS refunds from COVID-era penalties — the deadline to file Form 843 is July 10, and it can only be mailed on paper
A penalty of $500 here, $1,200 there. During the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS kept its automated penalty machine running even as its...
The IRS may owe you money from COVID-era penalties — but you have to file a paper form by July 10 or lose it forever
Millions of Americans were hit with IRS penalties during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the federal government may owe them money back. But there is a...
The IRS is running 125 AI models to flag tax returns — up from 54 two years ago — and high-earner audits are climbing back toward pre-cut levels
If you earned seven figures last year and filed a clean return, you might still hear from the IRS. The agency is now running 125...
The IRS is running 125 AI models to flag tax returns in 2026 — up from 54 in 2024 — and high-earner audit rates are climbing back toward pre-2010 levels
If you reported more than $10 million in income on your most recent tax return, the IRS is screening it with tools that barely existed...
The IRS is running 125+ AI models to flag returns in 2026 — up from 54 two years ago — while Congress wants to cut the agency’s budget by another $1 billion
Somewhere inside the IRS, a machine-learning model is comparing the income you reported on your 2025 tax return against every W-2, 1099, and third-party record...
An attorney went viral on TikTok for refusing to pay her $8,800 tax bill as a political protest — millions watched, and the IRS hasn’t responded
Rachel Cohen filed her 2025 federal tax return. She calculated what she owed. Then she decided not to pay it. The Chicago attorney posted a...
House Republicans want to cut IRS funding by $1 billion next year — right after the IRS processed a record $202 billion in refunds
The IRS just finished delivering more than $202 billion in tax refunds through March 20, capping what the agency called one of its smoothest filing...
The IRS enforcement workforce is about to shrink below 30,000 — fewer than in Trump’s first term — even as AI audits expand
The IRS processed roughly 163 million individual tax returns in fiscal year 2024. By the end of 2026, the number of enforcement employees responsible for...
The IRS spent $680 million tracking Americans’ foreign bank accounts — and barely penalized anyone
The IRS knows where Americans keep their offshore money. It has known for years. Since the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act took effect in 2014,...
The IRS just launched a new whistleblower alert — and you could earn up to 30% of what tax fraudsters owe
The IRS wants you to snitch on tax cheats, and it is putting real money on the table. The agency’s Whistleblower Office has launched a...
Senate Finance probes $370M tax break Trump IRS gave Cheniere Energy for classifying LNG tankers as “motorboats”
A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker stretches roughly 1,000 feet from bow to stern. For context, under federal shipping regulations, a motorboat stretches about 65...
IRS launches anonymous Tax Debt Help tool, no Social Security number required
The IRS wants you to explore your tax debt options before you hand over a single piece of personal information. A web-based feature called Tax...
IRS now runs 129 AI use cases — up from 10 in 2022 — as workforce shrinks 27%
If your tax refund hits a snag this spring, good luck reaching a person at the IRS. The agency that opened the 2025 filing season...
22 million overtime-deduction claims flood the IRS — 5-8 million above expectations
When the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) opened the 2026 filing season, roughly 22 million workers claimed the new “no tax on overtime” deduction by the...
IRS just launched a free Tax Debt Help tool: no SSN required
Tax season is winding down, but for roughly 19 million Americans who carry an unpaid federal tax balance, according to the IRS Data Book, the...
The red flags most likely to get you audited in 2026 — updated with OBBB deduction triggers
A freelance graphic designer reports $62,000 in 1099 income but claims $58,000 in Schedule C expenses, parking her net profit right at the sweet spot...
IRS is now using AI chatbots to flag risky returns — the 2026 red flags most likely to trigger a look
A freelance graphic designer in Austin filed her 2025 return in February, confident the numbers were right. Six weeks later, she got a CP2000 notice...
IRS warns of “dishonest preparers” charging excessive fees to claim bogus tip and overtime deductions
Imagine a scenario that reflects the pattern the IRS describes: a restaurant server walks into a tax office and is told she qualifies for thousands...
IRS: average tax refund rises 11% to about $3,676 this filing season
The average American tax refund is running about $370 larger than it was at the same point last year, and the gap has held steady...