History Main / AuditThreat

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' has Flack do this a fair bit. Mac does it once as well and followed through...he and Stella walked away grinning as a Fed agent laundry-listed the perp's charges.

* ''{{VideoGame/Arcanum}}'': With some points in Persuasion, claiming to be from the Tarant Council allows some conflicts to be resolved peacefully (such as mentioning the "[[AnOfferYouCan'tRefuse irregularities]]" in the acquisition of Bessie Toone's mine or asking what exactly the Schuylers' clerk what exactly his bosses are up to).

* In the manga for ''Manga/{{Akira}}'', the military takes this UpToEleven. When the barman confidently produces his liquor license, the agent talking to him proceeds to ''burn'' it, informing the barman that of course he'll have to pass another inspection to get a new one...

* In ''Film/{{Angel}}'', Miss Allen is attempting to gain access to Molly's apartment but is being stonewalled by Molly's landlord Solly. Miss Allen then tells Solly that she used to work for the Department of Health and she can see so many violations in this rattrap that she could get the apartment building closed with one call to City Hall. Solly relents and gives her the key to the apartment.

* In ''Series/{{Veep}}'', Selina gets a congresswoman to vote for a bill she supports by threatening, among other things, to sic the IRS on her corrupt husband. A JustifiedTrope: as vice president (and eventually president), Selina has considerably more sway over the IRS than a random cop might.

'''Dragon:''' True, but of course, no one will believe you. More importantly, it won't do anything for your paintings. What do you think would happen to them? I imagine they'd be seized and...auctioned off, made available to everyone. Perhaps Mr. Pope would be able to buy one. Won't it do your heart good to think of one of your paintings...in Mr. Pope's hands?

'''Hemlock:''' Dragon, you have a talent for [[AnythingButThat describing the indescribable]].\\

* ''Literature/TravisMcGee'': In ''The Empty Copper Sea'', [=McGee=] pulls this on a a bar owner: knowing that health and fire codes are contradictory and therefore he is almost guaranteed to be breaking one of them. This scene was kept in the 1980 MadeForTVMovie adaptation ''Travis [=McGee=]''; a FailedPilot starring Creator/RodTaylor.

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* Used by the Beagle Boys in one [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Donald Duck]] comic. When Donald refuses to reveal the location of Scrooge's money vault among the four dozen he had built, they grab a blank tax form and start filling it out for him, putting down the kind of income that, well, Scrooge would be familiar with. He caves in after that. Fortunately, after Donald explains the situation (once the vault is emptied) and gets Scrooge to stop killing him, Scrooge starts dynamiting the other vaults... where it turns out the Beagle Boys had stashed it.

* In ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop,'' Axel Foley is caught illegally searching for evidence; he pretends to be an inspector and threatens an employee who questions his authority with an IRS audit. The employee drops his objections.
* Robert Stack's tycoon character in ''Film/UncommonValor'' gets threatened with IRS audits if he continues to fund the operation to go rescue some long-abandoned and left for dead UsefulNotes/VietnamWar prisoners (amongst which is his and TheHero's son). [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome His response]] [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules is]] [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight a simple]] [[PrecisionFStrike "fuck you"]].

-->'''Dragon:''' I should think your collection would be interesting material for the Internal Revenue people. How does an underpaid professor buy rare paintings? Masterpieces worth millions.
-->'''Hemlock:''' I wonder what the tax people would say if I revealed how I made the money -- by killing people for the government.
-->'''Dragon:''' True, but of course, no one will believe you. More importantly, it won't do anything for your paintings. What do you think would happen to them? I imagine they'd be seized and...auctioned off, made available to everyone. Perhaps Mr. Pope would be able to buy one. Won't it do your heart good to think of one of your paintings...in Mr. Pope's hands?
-->'''Hemlock:''' Dragon, you have a talent for [[AnythingButThat describing the indescribable]].

* In Lindsey Davis's Literature/MarcusDidiusFalco book ''Time To Depart'', Falco and Petro are talking to the receptionist of a brothel (they were going to question her boss) when she offers them 'something special', a freeborn whore. Petro asks if the receptionist can show him the official she's registered with, and her registration number, after which she realises that they weren't there to score.

* In ''Bloodline'', by Creator/SidneySheldon, many people would cooperate with any investigation lead by Detective Max Hornung because of the reputation he earned during his previous job as a tax auditor. And only once in the whole book he's ever seen actually threatening someone. He did earn his reputation.

* ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'': In "My Master The Rich Tycoon" it's a case of ''dueling'' audit threats. An IRS man threatens to audit Dr. Bellows if he doesn't cough up some information on Major Nelson. Dr. Bellows threatens to have the IRS man [[{{Conscription}} drafted]]. Touché, Dr. Bellows, touché.

* In ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', Tony or Gibbs also do this on occasions.
** In Gibbs's case, he makes it stick, because it's not a ''threat'', it's a ''promise''.

* In the Eli Sternberg arc in ''Series/{{Wiseguy}}'', Federal Agent [=McPike=] is trying to get some information from a company that does business with the group that they are investigating. They refuse, until [=McPike=] says "If you don't let me in, I will call my friends at the IRS. They eat guys like you for breakfast". The company lets him in immediately.
* In ''Series/TheRockfordFiles,'' people in official positions often threaten to have Jim Rockford's private investigator's license reviewed to get him to cooperate.
* On ''Series/{{Justified}}'' US Marshal Raylan is in Florida looking for a fugitive and needs to get in touch with Daryl Crowe. He goes to talk to one of Daryl's associates but the guy is uncooperative. Raylan then tells him that he and his partner are going to grab food at a local diner and if Daryl is not there by the time they finish eating, they will come back with a warrant and an official from Fish and Wildlife. Since the guy has been illegally poaching alligators, he quickly becomes cooperative. Averted when they meet with Daryl since the marshals simply threaten to send him back to jail for a parole violation which is within their jurisdiction.

* A variation in ''Series/DocMartin''. PC Penhale runs a LoanShark out of town despite not being able to demonstrate that the man has been committing crimes by threatening to give the van he runs his business out of a very thorough vehicle inspection.
* In one episode of ''Series/TheNanny'', Fran ponders this as a way to deal with her possessive, "[[Main/TheMafia connected]]" boyfriend, by exploiting her own family connections.

* Sidereals in TabletopGame/{{Exalted}} occasionally face this, as befits reality-protecting office-worker ninjas of the CelestialBureaucracy.

[[folder: WebComics]]
* In ''Webcomic/ScaryGoRound'', secret agent [[http://scarygoround.com/sgr/ar.php?date=20030327 Fallon Young uses the same sort of pressure]] to get inventor Tim Jones to join her on a mission.

* In WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom, this was used several times by people representing the government. It got quick results in each instance.

* Used by the Beagle Boys in one DonaldDuck comic. When Donald refuses to reveal the location of Scrooge's money vault among the four dozen he had built, they grab a blank tax form and start filling it out for him, putting down the kind of income that, well, Scrooge would be familiar with. He caves in after that. Fortunately, after Donald explains the situation (once the vault is emptied) and gets Scrooge to stop killing him, Scrooge starts dynamiting the other vaults... where it turns out the Beagle Boys had stashed it.

* ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'': In "My Master The Rich Tycoon" it's case of ''dueling'' audit threats. An IRS man threatens to audit Dr. Bellows if he doesn't cough up some information on Major Nelson. Dr. Bellows threatens to have the IRS man [[{{Conscription}} drafted]]. Touché, Dr. Bellows, touché.
* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' has Flack do this a fair bit. Mac does it once as well, and followed thru...he and Stella walked away grinning as a Fed agent laundry-listed the perp's charges.

** In Gibbs' case, he makes it stick, because it's not a ''threat'', it's a ''promise''.

* On ''Series/LawAndOrderSVU'', they've followed through on the threat at least twice. In one episode Rollins uses the audit threat to get a witness to comply -- and once that's done, pulls an ILied and signals the FBI to come pouring in.

** In "What's Up, Tiger Mommy?", Sam and Dean try PerpSweating a pawn shop owner into giving up information, but he's not impressed as they're covered by CCTV cameras. Mrs Tran however points out that her brother in the tax department had better not find out about [[SuspiciousSpending the fancy sports car]] he's got parked outside.

-->"''Begone,'' demon, or be plagued with ''high interest rates!''"

* Robert Stack's tycoon character in Film/UncommonValor gets threatened with IRS audits if he continues to fund the operation to go rescue some long-abandoned and left for dead UsefulNotes/VietnamWar prisoners (amongst which is his and TheHero's son). [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome His response]] [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules is]] [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight a simple]] [[PrecisionFStrike "fuck you"]].

* ''The Eiger Sanction'' (1975). RetiredBadass Dr Hemlock is coerced back for OneLastJob after Dragon threatens to tip off the IRS about his art collection bought on the black market. He then follows this up with an even worse threat -- the idea of Hemlock's precious paintings being bought by the gutter public, or even Dragon's [[NumberTwoForBrains brainless henchman Mr Pope]], whom Hemlock loathes.

-->'''Hemlock:''' Dragon, you have a talent for describing the indescribable.

** In ''Discworld/MenAtArms,'' the City Watch (under Corporal Carrot) uses this to get some weapons to deal with the civil unrest in Ankh-Morpork from the armory.
** By the time of ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'', the City Watch has gained the power to use this threat thanks to A.E. Pessimal.

* Used by the BeagleBoys in one DonaldDuck comic. When Donald refuses to reveal the location of Scrooge's money vault among the four dozen he had built, they grab a blank tax form and start filling it out for him, putting down the kind of income that, well, Scrooge would be familiar with. He caves in after that. Fortunately, after Donald explains the situation (once the vault is emptied) and gets Scrooge to stop killing him, Scrooge starts dynamiting the other vaults... where it turns out the Beagle Boys had stashed it.

This is far less common than one might think and is usually not TruthInTelevision. The IRS and most equivalent agencies need to have probable cause to audit a business. Simply doing so on the say so of a police officer is guaranteed to result in the audit being ruled illegal by a judge even if anything incriminating were to be found. Police or detectives employing this tactic would also certainly face disciplinary action if not dismissal from the force.

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' has Flack do this a fair bit. Mac does it once as well.

This is far less common than one might think and is usually not TruthInTelevision. The IRS and most equivalent agencies need to have probable cause to audit a business. Simply doing so on the say so of a police officer is guaranteed to result in the audit being ruled illegal by a judge even if anything incriminating were to be found.

* ''Series/CSINewYork'' has Flack do this a fair bit.

* Happens all the time on ''Series/LawAndOrder''.

* In one episode of Series/MurphyBrown, Murphy gets in trouble with the White House (again), and Miles ends up dealing with the fallout.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Sidereals in TabletopGame/{{Exalted}} occasionally face this, as befits reality-protecting office-worker ninjas of the CelestialBureaucracy.

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