Fewer than 1 percent of partnerships with more than $100 million in assets, including hedge funds and private equity firms, are audited by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, a government report said on Thursday. Despite a surge in the number of partnerships over the last decade, the IRS did not conduct field audits for 99 percent of these tax-favored businesses from 2007 through 2012, said the preliminary report from the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. In response to the GAO report, the IRS said partnership audits are a priority, but that "budget reductions over the past few years have severely limited our work in this area." The IRS audited 0.4 percent of all partnership tax returns in 2013, including partnerships with less than $100 million in assets, the agency said in data released in March. The agency audited less than 1 percent of all 190 million tax returns it received last year. Partnerships, including hedge funds, private equity
↧
