Working with tax whistleblowers for nearly twenty years, a common question I receive is: If I blow the whistle and file with the IRS, will my name come out? Will I be safe?

Happily, the short answer for tax whistleblowers is “yes.” The IRS takes seriously the protection of the identity of whistleblowers. I have seen the IRS commitment to protecting tax whistleblower identity first-hand representing scores of whistleblowers. This commitment to protection of whistleblowers is affirmed in detail in a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report: “Protection For Whistleblowers And Others: Selected Agency Actions Regarding Reports of Potential Wrongdoing.”

The GAO report discusses different federal agency approaches to protecting whistleblowers. The GAO notes that the IRS Whistleblower Office (WBO) is committed to protecting the identity of a whistleblower to the maximum extent that the law allows.

The laws protecting tax information – Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code – serve as a marked safeguard for whistleblowers given that the IRS views the tax whistleblower and their submission as 6103-protected information – as to the whistleblower. The IRS in practice will neither confirm or deny that there is a whistleblower in response to a request from the taxpayer.

The GAO report states that:

According to IRS officials, to protect the discloser during an investigation, IRS maintains a separate claim file with information about the discloser that is distinct from...

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