How Many Auditors Are Out There?

Here's a rundown of the top 10 states by auditors employed:

1. California: 730
   No surprise here and probably none of our clients are suprised either. CA is very active with our clients. But usually CA, by any measure you come up with, is pretty much double the size of any other state.
2. Texas: 468
   Texas came in 2nd, in terms of numbers of auditors out there, and it barely beat out number 3. Texas has had larger numbers of auditors in the past -- as many as 600. Diferent Comptrollers¹ have come in and cut numbers to save costs.
3. New York: 467
   New York is traditionally viewed as one of the more difficult states to deal with and when you see how many auditors they have, you're probably not surprised.
4. Florida: 390
   States like FL and TX with no personal income tax, rely very heavily on the sales tax.
5. Illinois: 279
   I bet if I had just asked you name the 5 "Big" states for sales tax audits these would have been the first 5 you would have named. Here is the rest of the top ten.
6. Washington: 218
7. Minnesota: 236
8. Michigan: 200
9. Tennessee: 178
10. North Carolina: 175
    Besides the states with no statewide sales tax such as Alabama, Dlaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon the following states have less than 20 sales tax auditors:
    North Dakota and Wyoming

We got an interesting chart from one of the sources we subscribe to. It's the Sales and Use Tax Monitor published by Strafford Publications. You can subscribe also at www.straffordpub.com¹ if you're interested.