April 18, 2023 was Tax Day and whistleblower advocates took advantage of the day to draw attention to the IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act of 2023. The bipartisan bill, introduced on March 2, offers reforms to the IRS Whistleblower Program, which has been plagued by a number of issues over the past few years.
In a new National Law Review article, leading whistleblower attorney Stephen M. Kohn of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto explains the need for the bill. He outlines the past successes of the IRS Whistleblower Program and the current crisis it is facing.
“By offering monetary awards to whistleblowers, the program has been immensely successful in incentivizing individuals with direct knowledge of large-scale tax fraud to come forward and cooperate with U.S. authorities,” Kohn writes. “In recent years, however, the program has been plagued by a number of issues, including massive delays, which have greatly undermined its efficacy.”
Kohn details the key provisions of the bill which would bolster the IRS Whistleblower Program: “In addition to addressing the debilitating delays, the bill takes aim at the tax whistleblower law’s lack of statutory anonymity for whistleblowers, the absence of de novo review for tax whistleblower award appeals, and the improper reduction of awards through budget sequestration.”
“An effective IRS Whistleblower Program is key to the efforts of the United States to hold wealthy tax cheats accountable to cut down on the tax gap,” Kohn writes in...
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