On February 15, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee held a confirmation hearing for Daniel Werfel, President Biden’s nominee to be the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). During the hearing, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) raised concerns about recent issues plaguing the IRS Whistleblower Program, which prompted Werfel to state that he would look into those issues and find ways to strengthen the program.
The IRS Whistleblower Program offers monetary awards and anti-retaliation protections to individuals reporting tax fraud to the U.S. government. The program revolutionized the U.S.’s tax enforcement efforts. Since 2006 the IRS has awarded whistleblowers over $1 billion based on the collection of over $6.4 billion in back taxes, interest, penalties, and criminal fines and sanctions.
Over the past few years, however, the program has been plagued by a number of issues leading to calls for reforms from whistleblower advocates. Grassley, who led the charge to establish the IRS Whistleblower Program, raised a number of these issues during Werfel’s confirmation hearing.
“In recent years, awards to whistleblowers have fallen while processing times have increased,” Grassley stated “The average time for processing whistleblower claims is now 11 years and I think that’s unacceptable.”
“If confirmed, what steps would you take to ensure well-functioning whistleblower programs so we can bring in a lot more than $6.4 billion,” Grassley asked Werfel.
Werfel replied that he...
Times of Malta's editorial team has demanded that alleged money-launderer Chris Spiteri remove false claims posted on Facebook against journalist Jacob Borg. An alert has also been filed with the ...