You’re now almost four times as likely to conduct your tax audit by mail, as you are to sit down with the tax man.

Of the more than 1.6 million Americans who were slapped with audits last year, 78% dealt with correspondence audits, while only 22% were asked to come in for an in-person examination.

That is a 13% rise in audits-by-mail from 2009, and a 93% jump compared to 2003. In 2000, the chances of getting a correspondence audit were less than 2 to 1.   more