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Posted by TxSrv on November 1, 2006, 4:52 pm
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jgolden1@austin.rr.com wrote:
> ...
> On an estate that is considered large, does that factor in
> how much effort and time the IRS looks at it? Do smaller
> estates take longer because the attorneys figure there is
> not much else to get out of a smaller estate and concentrate
> on the big ones?
Yes and no, respectively.
> I've also read how they have let go of about half the team
> of attorneys at the estate audit center, will this have a
> big effect on productivity there, I would think.
Perhaps for the better. They likely reduced total "E&G"
staffing due to plummeting $/hour on examined returns. Once
any class of return falls much below the per hour results of
other classes, they just don't work so many. From IRS
viewpoint (and that of Congress) all you're otherwise doing
is hassling people for smaller $$.
I looked at stats on the IRS site, comparing some prior
years to 2004, and the trends are evident, due to changing
law and patterns of wealth. E.g., the growing % of an
estate which is real estate, likely a less productive issue.
I used to manage the function which selected income tax
returns for audit, but also allocated the staff years for
the specialists who screened the 706s and everything else.
There's not that many taxable estates filed, and they don't
take long to screen. Nontaxables need a big issue to trip to
potentially taxable. I imagine they can use
paraprofessionals in a centralized operation also to do the
initial cut. They also lately have more efficient systems
to reference related returns, like the decedent's
closely-held corp.
> What factors are there, if any, that can be used to
> extrapolate the time of waiting?
Ouija Board? Any time span variance you experience could be
due to the ease with which some can be accepted, a function
of particular items on them as with any class of complex
return. Conversely, a return might be assigned for exam, but
later accepted as filed for a variety of reasons.
Fred F.
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