Audit avoidance

A tax season question:

My spouse’s accountant has told him that if you hand write the IRS address on your envelopes instead of using the preprinted labels, you decrease the chance of being audited. Apparently, the bar code on the label puts you into the random draw barrel, and handwriting doesn’t.

Not that I’ve got anything to hide, but does anyone know if there’s a smidgen of truth to this?

I prepare tax returns for a living and have never heard of that. I don’t believe it is true.

Probably just one of those IRS legends.

Even if it were true the IRS would never admit it and no one would be able to prove it.

Your chances of being audited are very low in any event.

I don’t know, but I’d be very surprised if the IRS did audits based on some physical lottery, like putting all of one type of application in a box and drawing one. It’s far easier for them to use a computer. And far more likely for them to pick cheaters, as a computer can look for strange numbers. By the time your return is in a computer, the mailing sticker has long ceased to be part of the package. So I’d bet against this one being true.

http://www.snopes2.com/spoons/fracture/taxlabel.htm

There we go! I knew it couldn’t be true.

Ha! It didn’t seem all that likely to me.

Thank you Zumba. I thought this was too random for Snopes. (Oh ye of little faith!)