An IRS whistleblower program that has produced more than $6 billion in payments since 2007 is languishing due to a lack of funding, The Hill’s Tobias Burns reports Wednesday.
The IRS Whistleblower Office rewards people who provide information about tax cheats after the tax agency recovers what it is owed. The rewards vary from 15% to 30% of what is recovered, and according to the program’s most recent annual report, between 2007 and 2021 the program collected $6.39 billion from “non-compliant taxpayers” while paying out $1.05 billion to whistleblowers – a hefty 6-to-1 ratio.
But funding for the program has declined in recent years, along with the amounts of money it has recovered. According to a Senate Finance Committee report, the number of investigations fell from 43 in 2014 to just six in 2020. Revenues have been falling, too, from $1.4 billion in 2018 to $245 million in 2021.
A tool to catch wealthy tax cheats: The whistleblower program is discussed in a recently released report from the Senate Finance Committee that highlights an investigation into allegations that billionaire software executive Robert Brockman concealed approximately $2.7 billion in income from the IRS. In what is the largest tax evasion case brought against an individual in U.S. history, Brockman was indicted, with key evidence in the case coming from a whistleblower.
“Brockman’s scheme may have gone undetected by the IRS and federal prosecutors were it not for evidence provided by a whistleblower...
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