for the audit rate for lower incomes being even lower. You need to maintain SOME threat of an audit or it becomes open season for low income filers to rampantly cheat, but basically any audit of someone making less than $50K is going to be an investment in scaring away other low income cheats because there's no way you're going to recover the cost of the audit going after a sub-$50K tax payer when the average total tax liability for this group is under $900.