WASHINGTON, March 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has increased audits and lawmakers are considering new laws to collect more taxes, the agency and lawmakers said.
The agency estimates the government misses out on $290 billion in revenue due to the growing "tax gap."
As a result, the IRS last year examined more than 6 percent of returns from filers whose income exceeded $1 million, up from a 5 percent rate in 2004.
People who put small-business income on their returns also met with higher scrutiny, the IRS said.
But even average taxpayers saw audit rates edge up to levels last seen in the late 1990s, The Christian Science Monitor reported.
The Bush administration has proposed expanding tax-enforcement spending 5 percent in 2008 from 2006 levels.
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., proposed legislation to make it harder for people to escape taxes by setting up offshore accounts.
A Youngstown State University in Ohio study found many people feel justified in cheating a little, in part because they believe the system is unfair and that worse evaders are going undetected, the Monitor said.
