I have a question. Is it harder for the IRS to audit you, if you send in a paper tax return versus a online? I would think it would be much easier for them to audit you if it is sent online , as the computer can more readily flag errors. A human being would have to personally look through it themselves if a paper return was mailed to them.
Paper returns are scanned anyway, and OCR is used to convert the numbers on the return into a digital form.
Scanning can introduce errors, so you are more likely to encounter an audit for that reason.
However, it does take time for them to scan it. The clock starts ticking as soon as you file it.
No and, as another post has said, the process of conversion into computer data can unnecessary errors. in previous days there were hundreds of human operators sitting in front of various types of data conversion machines to put an individual tax return into machine-usable form.
Now it is mainly OCR and the like unless the writing (and I have seen some of these) is so bad as to seem deliberate to make trouble. THESE would be ones to provoke CLOSE examination I would guess. "Poking a stick at a tiger!"
No discernible difference for CP2000 letters which are simply matching amounts to reported amounts.
For regular audit, the program used to select return for audit may not use paper or efile as an attribute but when it goes for desk review before contacting taxpayer a return prepared by professional may bias the reviewer away from audit. The desk review is somewhat subjective.