Traditions seem to by dying away. It might be the family reunion gathering at the park every summer. Maybe getting together on Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning with your loved ones gathered around the Christmas tree that you had gone out and cut. Or maybe...well, we all have traditions that, because of an ever increasing busy world, has fallen by the wayside.

And we miss them.

But there's one tradition that is fading away that many might say good riddance to.

According to CBS News and an article in the New York Times, the tax audit is becoming a thing of the past. Well, perhaps not a thing of the past, but it's becoming rarer and rarer. Why?

Fewer authorities are checking into our returns. It began in about 2011 when the IRS budget was reduced which led to few and few employees. The agency thinned out their agency by about a third. So while it was a slim chance that you'd be audited to begin with, it's even less these days.In fact in 2017 only 1 in 160 individual returns were audited. And not surprisingly, it was the highest earners that had the best chance of getting audited. It was the sixth straight annual decline in audits.

I remember the days as a kid and watching my dad spread out receipts and other papers on the little metal kitchen table and punching the hard-plastic adding machine. He'd drop an adult word or two, crumple up a piece of paper and grumble. It's what we called 'stay away from dad' time. I don't think he ever got audited because he never made enough money for the government to worry about.

But with all that being said, if you're one of those folks that made over a $1 million last year, well, while the rest of us have about a .6% chance of an audit, you're chances are about 4.3%.

So, have you ever been audited?

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