Today, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Whistleblower Office released its first-ever multi-year operating plan, “outlining guiding principles, strategic priorities, recent achievements and current initiatives to advance the IRS Whistleblower Program.”

“This is welcome news for IRS whistleblowers whose cases languish for years, sometimes up to a decade or more, before the whistleblower can be paid an award,” says David Colapinto.

“This is an important step forward,” adds Stephen M. Kohn. “This is a critical program that has been held back by antiquated regulations. It’s time to modernize the program and effectively prosecute tax evaders.”

The plan lays out six strategic priorities:

1. Enhance the claim submission process to promote greater efficiency.
2. Use high-value whistleblower information effectively.
3. Award whistleblowers fairly and as soon as possible.
4. Keep whistleblowers informed of the status of their claims and the basis for IRS decisions on claims.
5. Safeguard whistleblower and taxpayer information.
6. Ensure that our workforce is supported with effective tools, technology, training and other resources.

“Of particular interest to the whistleblower community is the IRS’ emphasis on increasing efficiencies to speed up the process and issuing whistleblower awards faster and as soon as possible,” Colapinto adds.

“While paying whistleblower awards can incentivize other whistleblowers to report major tax fraud by wealthy tax cheats, the failure to pay whistleblower awards...

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