I don't want "handouts for the poor" (well, I do, but I'm perfectly happy to legislate them). I _also_ don't want "I don't pay taxes, but I make over X, and the IRS only has an enforcement budget of Y, so I can probably just file a false return and not worry about it because they'll be busy with all the 'little people'" to be the calculus of people like the VCs who fund this site. They are absolutely that smart. They remind us constantly. People like them absolutely make this calculation all the time under the current regime.
We know why the IRS disproportionately audits low income people, because the IRS Commissioner said so. It’s a result of intentional budget cutting on enforcement. They don’t enough investigators, so they go with the easiest to audit, people making less than $20,000.
Your own source links to an article which says that people whose incomes are over $1 million are much more likely to be audited than EITC recipients. $500k to $1 million is when your taxes start to really get complicated.
Honestly, if that's where the cheating takes place, they should go for it. It is disingenuous to say that they get audited more than the wealthy, though. Because they don't.
It's not just the population size. Those receiving the EITC are audited at a much higher rate than any other group making less than seven figures. You are correct that the rate goes up after that.
It’s a very real thing in countries worldwide that tax institutions would rather spend $10 000 000 to be virtually guaranteed to gain $1000 from 100 000 people, than spend $10 00 000 to try to gain $100 000 000 from a wealthy person that will just summon up a world-class tax code + legal team that will delay and frustrate the process as much as possible.
