In 2011, IRS Audited 12% of Millionaires

Cheer up 99%; at least you're not getting audited. The IRS turned up the heat on the wealthy in 2011, auditing 12% of people earning a million dollars or more, according to figures released yesterday. That's up from 8% of millionaires in 2010 and 6% in 2009. By contrast, only 1% of people making $200,000 or less got a call from the tax man, the AP observes.

The push is designed to "assure that those at the lower end of the spectrum know that those at the higher end of the spectrum are subject to the same rules," an IRS deputy commissioner says, adding that it's unrelated to Barack Obama's push for higher taxes on the rich. "We don't play politics." On another tax-related note: The IRS has pushed its filing deadline this year back to April 17, the Christian Science Monitor reports, because the 15th is a Sunday, and the 16th is Emancipation Day in DC. (More IRS stories.)