Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University has released a report showing the IRS has cut back on the number of audits of large corporations.
“The decline in audits of large corporations is surprising because (1) the highest levels of misreported tax dollars per auditor hour are found among the biggest business organizations and (2) since FY 2005, Congress has provided the IRS with the funds it needs to hire an increasing number of revenue agents … .” the study announcement states.

Retail sales in Amarillo continued to lag, construction was flat, and while employment was holding steady, wages were still off in the March Amarillo Economic Pulse.
All that points to a flat economy, even though at least one national survey, Moody’s Analyst, is trumpeting a start to recovery from the recession for Amarillo.
The Economic Pulse, compiled by Amarillo National Bank, registered at 168.98 for March, up from the 146.61 of a year ago but a retreat from the 186.75 of last month. The index uses January 1988 as a base of 100.
If jobs are the prime indicator of recovery, then Amarillo is, at best, primed for recovery. The number of workers employed in the state’s household survey remains up from a year ago, said Patrick Ware, an assistant vice president at Amarillo National, while the employer’s survey was off by 1,300 jobs from last year.
That disparity indicates that some workers have started to get more working hours, while others have taken part-time jobs, he said. Those two circumstances usually mean that business activity has started to pick up.
The next positive sign would be an increase in weekly wages, Ware said. But in the March survey, that figure continued to lag behind the year-ago amount, $678.58 in the current survey, compared with $691.83 a year ago.
The lagging income has continued to affect retail sales, Ware noted, as people have become more frugal and are saving spare cash rather than indulging.
The decline in the year-to-date sales, though, has cut nearly $1 million from sales tax collections, which provide the bulk of the city of Amarillo’s operating funds, meaning belt-tightening and/or tax and fee increases may be considered. The year-to-date collections stood at $14.21 million for this year, down from $15.16 million last year.
Among major categories, new-car sales were off 25 percent, according to the Pulse’s monthly analysis, while used-car sales were up 37 percent from a year ago.
Although home construction for March was level with a month ago, it continued to be up by a third from last year’s level, as housing continues to be the biggest source of new building permits.
Among commodities, the area wheat crop got a boost from the wet late-winter weather, with prices pegged at $4.02 a bushel, down from $5.30 a year ago. Cattle continued to fetch higher prices this year, $97 per hundredweight compared with $92 a month ago and $83 a year ago, and cotton also continued much stronger than a year ago, 74.24 cents per pound compared with 38.39 cents a year ago.
Oil prices, reflecting a surge in speculation, stood at $78.23 a barrel for Panhandle crude, up from $43.15 a year ago when prices faltered with the sour worldwide economy. Natural gas took its seasonal dip as the heating season ends and the storage season begins for next winter, dropping to $4.46 per thousand cubic feet in the current survey, essentially the same as a year ago at $4.40.
Exploration for oil and gas continues at a similar pace, 45 working rigs in the area now compared with 42 a month ago and 39 a year ago.