#4 Large charitable donations - Top five ways to make sure that you get audited by the IRS

Everyone loves to give to charity, even the IRS, and for that reason, the tax code encourages charity donations - up to a point. While you don’t need to itemize any individual donation under $250, for any donation above $250 you should keep a letter proving that the donation was made to a registered charity - and remember, your friend’s Gofundme is more than likely not a registered charity. And if you made a bunch of donations under $250? Well if you are going to claim that more than 10% of your income went to charity, be prepared to have the paperwork ready to show the IRS agent who will be asking you for it.

You might think the IRS has a building full of auditors peering over your tax return and waiting for you to slip up. Well, they do, but in recent years the IRS has focused on finding compliance errors that are easy to spot and simple to enforce. It might take the IRS a year or more to catch up with you, but when they do you will owe not just the back taxes, but also fines and interest that might add up to more than the taxes you skipped paying. But if you still really want to get the IRS’s attention, you can read this series on how to make certain they notice you.