What are the odds of being audited?

Clients  often ask me, "what are the chances I will be audited?"  Well here are the numbers from last year, according to the Internal Revenue Service's Fiscal Year 2012 Enforcement and Service Results report, which covered the tax season that ended in April 12, 2012:

 Total of All Individual Returns Filed: 143,399,737
-
Mail/Correspondence Audit: 1,122,216
- Field Audit/In Person: 359,750
- Total Combined Audits: 1,481,966
- 1.03 percent

 Total Individuals with Income Under $200,000:
138,554,470
- Mail/Correspondence Audit: 1,012,898
- Field Audit/In Person: 290,015
- Total Combined Audits: 1,302,913
- 0.94 percent

 Total Individuals with Income Over $200,000: 4,845,267
- Mail/Correspondence Audit: 109,318
- Field Audit/In Person: 69,735
- Total Combined Audits: 179,053
- 3.70 percent

 Total Individuals with Income Over $1 Million: 337,477
- Mail/Correspondence Audit: 23,139
- Field Audit/In Person: 17,826
- Total Combined Audits: 40,965
- 12.14 percent

So what does that mean?  Well, as you can see the chances of being audited are less than 1% if you make less than 200k.  But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be prepared.  Keep all documents that pertain to your tax return and make sure you have the necessary reciepts to backup the deductions you are taking especially those that deal with mileage, meals and contributions as those are areas they often look at.