Detection Risk

Categories: Regulations, Tech

"Can we get away with it?"

"Will our accounting chicanery be...detected?"

That's what detection risk is all about. Shady dealers in whatever industry will assess their own risk of getting caught in a reasonably sophisticated manner before, uh, chicaning. Or tricking. Or deceiving. And this term is a Thing because the government and audit overlords of the world are perpetually strapped for resources. They simply don't have the man or woman or horse or computer power to go after the evil-doers the way they'd like to. So tons of, say, tax filings are deceptive.

But the poor old IRS (yes, pity them) simply doesn't have the ability to audit every return. So they don't. And taxpayers, corporations, and other ne'er-do-wells assess their own risks of getting caught before they roll the dice on whatever docs they plan to sign and send in to the G-people...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)