The Journal doesn't say so, but the overall audit rate is more like 1 percent.

The audit rate, affected by many factors, has considerable geographic variation.

Among taxpayers who did not apply for that credit, the audit rate last year was just one in 370.

The audit rate usually averages just above 1 percent, or one out of every 100 taxpayers.

Over the last decade, the audit rate for the largest corporations has fallen by almost half.

As a result, overall audit rates fell to record lows last year.

Since 1988 the audit rate for people earning more than $100,000 has fallen, from 11.4 percent to 2.94 percent in 1994.

The audit rate for people who earned less than $25,000 was 1.04 percent, up from 0.74 percent in 1994.

Among the 11,000 largest companies, the audit rate rose to 38 percent last year, from 29 percent in 2003, according to the report.

The audit rate for large companies peaked most recently at 49.6 percent in the 1996 fiscal year.