The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) of Syracuse University has issued a new report, Audits of Largest Corporations Slide to All Time Low:

The FY 2007 audit rate for the nation's largest corporations has plunged to its lowest level in the last 20 years, less than half what it was in FY 1988 ... The historic collapse in audits for the corporations with $250 million or more in assets was especially notable during the last two years when the rate dropped from 43% in FY 2005, to 34% in FY 2006 and then to an all-time low of 26% in FY 2007. [Click on chart to enlarge.]

But along with the declining number of audits for the largest corporations, the IRS data point to a second significant finding: the thoroughness of these essential audits has been dropping. One example of this broad problem can be seen by the fact that the typical amount of time auditors spend on each of the large corporate audits is down by 20% over the last five years.