Greetings from the IRS means one thing: a tax audit.

No one is immune. The taxman can hit anyone, including former President Reagan and some of the nation's top lawmakers. The good news is that the percentage of people audited each year has declined because our nation's overworked tax bureaucrats can't keep up with the growth in population.

The IRS defines an audit as "an impartial review of the taxpayer's return to determine its completeness and accuracy." Former U.S. Sen. Edward V. Long of Missouri disagreed. He compared the Internal Revenue Service to a "Gestapo preying upon defenseless citizens."

The recent hearings before Congress are not the first time IRS intimidation has surfaced on Capitol Hill.

In a 1982 hearing before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, then-U.S. Rep. George Hansen of Idaho alleged the existence of "IRS hit lists, snooping and spying operations, political retaliatory audits ... and arbitrary assessments and seizures for punitive rather than tax collection purposes."

The case against the IRS, however, was presented most vividly by the purported victims of IRS brutality, who methodically testified to individual confrontations with the agency in great detail, including descriptions of forced detention, physical force and the use of weapons for intimidation.

It was reported that one taxpayer's wife, stricken with polio, needed an iron lung to keep herself alive. An IRS agent threatened to seize the iron lung unless taxes claimed to be due were paid immediately. The panicked taxpayer paid.

Apparently, no one is sacrosanct. In the summer of 1987, the IRS acknowledged that it had accidentally placed an erroneous $338.85 lien against President Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan. Although the lien was discovered and rescinded, it remains a permanent entry in the county records system where it was filed.

IRS terrorists show no fear. In Kansas City, police officer Paul Campbell stopped a speeder and started to write a ticket. The offending driver identified himself as an agent for the IRS and told the officer that if he got a ticket, "We'll just have to check out your taxes."

Soon after Campbell filed his next tax return, he was ordered to report to the IRS for an audit. It took four months of agency interrogations, repeated phone calls and constant letter writing before the IRS finally admitted that Campbell owed nothing.

In one case, the court was outraged at the lengths to which the IRS went to collect and keep some $5,000 to which, it turned out, it was not entitled. The IRS agents had padlocked the door to the taxpayer's place of business and discussed with the taxpayer the various sources from which he might beg or borrow the money in a conversation "distressingly like those between 'juice loan' debtors and creditors." The court found the "conduct of the IRS agents was almost beyond belief."

In a more recent case, former U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas remarked, "They should not be hit with outlandish penalties for failing to memorize the Federal Tax Code." She was talking about a $50 penalty against an 84-year-old Kansas City woman who underpaid her income tax by 60 cents! According to the Washington Post, on July 11, 1984, one couple was assessed $205 when they were found to be one cent shy after paying taxes of nearly $9,000!

In March 1989, then-Senator Albert Gore revealed that IRS tax examiners in the Memphis Service Center "have been instructed to remain silent" when they uncover legitimate deductions that taxpayers failed to take. As Internal Revenue Agent Thomas Mennitt said so succinctly in public testimony, "I violate laws at all times; it's part of my duties."

In response to these problems, Congress passed a Taxpayer's Bill of Rights in 1988 and a Taxpayer's Bill of Rights II in 1996. Both bills contain procedural safeguards and penalties to help clarify and ensure the rights and obligations of a taxpayer and the IRS during an audit or appeal and during the refund and collection process.

Procedural safeguards are great tools to avoid or survive an audit. The best defense is a good offense. If you know how the IRS works internally and where it is vulnerable, you can at least improve your odds of winning when the taxman calls.