Having dealt with audits for over 30 years, I can say random audits based upon income are intrusive, expensive and have not resulted obtaining more money from bad taxpayers.   During 2013, the sequestration removed funds from the IRS, causing the organization to reduce the number of taxpayers who were audited.  The audit rate dropped to less than 1% (.96%).  The audit rate is expected to drop even further in 2014.  That is the good news.  The government war against millionaires continued as 10.85% or 1 out of 9 taxpayers with income in excess of $1 million was audited in 2013, but even that amount is down from the 12.14% in the year before!  For those with earnings between $200,000 and $1 million, the rate fell to 2.7% or about 3 times higher than taxpayer’s with lower income.  So, there is some truth to the statement that good things come from limiting funds to the government.