The board said that if the agency did not get more money to do its job, tax cheating would continue to flourish - with honest Americans footing the bill.

While there are no official data, a number of economists and tax preparers say that tax cheating is on the rise.

Once a favorite entertainment investment, the shares of Cinar have tumbled since accusations of tax cheating were first raised by Stephane Bergeron, a member of the federal Parliament.

Ms. Joerg said Schedule C tax cheating would diminish with "more employer education" about how to properly classify people as employees or independent contractors and more enforcement of existing rules.

They will find a country where tax cheating is so rampant that Albania's 35th-highest taxpayer is an American-Albanian pizza parlor in the heart of Tirana.

Asked about data showing that additional taxes recommended for each audit are up, the agents who were interviewed all said that this showed only how pervasive tax cheating had become.

It concludes that criminal enforcement against tax cheating is "in shambles," and that the biggest offenders are getting off easiest.

But it was the volume of customers that suggested how widespread tax cheating has become in the face of a steady erosion in enforcement of the laws over the last 15 years.

The effort to find tax cheating is being reduced even more than these numbers suggest, according to more than four dozen I.R.S. employees.

Nobody knows how much tax cheating is going on because Congress has also eliminated the random audits once used to estimate the extent of tax evasion.