Worst States for IRS Audits

California and Colorado taxpayers had a higher chance of an IRS audit than taxpayers in any other states, according to a new study, while New York and Massachusetts had the highest chance of an audit of their 2013 state tax return.

TaxAudit.com studied 1.4 million U.S. tax returns for the 2013 tax year to do the analysis. It also found that taxpayers in North Dakota were the least likely to be audited by either the IRS or state.

“Even though you might not live in a highly audited state like California or New York, anyone can be audited at any time for any number of reasons," said TaxAudit.com vice president of customer advocacy Dave Du Val in a statement.

The rankings were based on the percentage of 2013 TaxAudit.com Audit Defense users that were audited in 2014.

STATES WITH MOST IRS AUDITS

1. California 
2. Colorado 

3. Nevada 
4. Vermont 
5. Missouri 
6. New Mexico 
7. Arizona 
8. Massachusetts 
9. Florida 
10. Rhode Island

STATES WITH THE MOST STATE AUDITS

1. New York 
2. Massachusetts 
3. Alabama 
4. Delaware 
5. Michigan 
6. Mississippi 
7. Arkansas 
8. Oregon 
9. Montana 
10. Maine

Michael Cohn is the editor-in-chief of AccountingToday.com.

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