You can easily run a program to detect people claiming the same dependents.
... while audits for rich folks required heavy human involvement right from the beginning, so of course the numbers are skewed such that it looks like they are targeting the middle and lower classes, if you treat both types of audit as identical.
These sorts of audits may or may not return any extra revenue.
The highest likelihood of tax fraud are people who commit small fraud that, to them, seem undetectable.
Sure you could go after a low income tax cheat, but you end up just putting them in debt if they don’t actually have the ability to pay you.
This is all about justice vs. profitability.
Should police only pull over people in luxury cars because they're more likely to be able to pay a speeding ticket?
Clear answer IMO. Similarly should the government prioritize more serious offenses over lesser? It's a bigger crime to evade $1,000,000 in taxes than it is to evade a $1,000 tax bill.
so the analogy is flawed, because you a priori assume the higher income people would perpetrate a higher amount of fraud.
> It's a bigger crime to evade $1,000,000 in taxes than it is to evade a $1,000 tax bill.
Yes, but is earning a higher income make you a higher probability of higher fraud? I don't think fraud is distributed like that. In fact, i would argue that the higher income you are, the more likely you are to use professional services for taxes, which means you are less likely to commit fraud!
Is it unfair that police patrol for speeders on the highway more than on bike paths?
yes, if the majority of the people are on bike paths, and they're the majority of all frauds.
Esp. if to drive on the highway, you are often driven by a chauffeur, who are professionals and knows exactly which section of the highway allows you to go fast without breaking the legal limits.
Therefore, patrolling the highways in lieu of bike paths means you will miss all of the small time speeders, and occasionally just catch a big speeder. I would imagine the trade off is not worth the loss in speeding tickets.