On March 2, a bipartisan group of senators introduced the IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act of 2023. The bill offers reforms to the IRS Whistleblower Program, which has been plagued by a number of issues over the past few years. Key reforms include the implementation of de novo review of award decisions and interest payments on delayed whistleblower awards.
“The IRS tax whistleblower program is in crisis,” said Stephen M. Kohn, leading whistleblower attorney at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Whistleblower Center. “The obstacles facing tax whistleblowers are unfair and intolerable. Congress required the IRS to pay whistleblowers a reward in large scale tax fraud cases. But the enforcement of this law has been crippled by loopholes. Wealthy Americans easily evade paying their fair share, while middle class taxpayers are overly burdened.”
Whistleblower advocates have been calling for reforms to the IRS Whistleblower Program for a number of years. While the program has been an immense success, awarding whistleblowers over $1 billion based on the collection of over $6 billion in back taxes, interest, penalties, and criminal fines and sanctions since 2007, its issues have begun to undermine the program. The program’s most recent annual report to Congress revealed that the annual money recovered by the program fell from $1.44 billion in Fiscal Year 2018 to just $245 million in Fiscal Year 2021.
The IRS Whistleblower...
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