IRS Pays Out First Award Under New Provisions of Whistleblower Program

In recent days, the IRS paid an accountant a $4.5 million award – the first under the new provisions of the Whistleblower Program – for finding an estimated $20 million of tax underpayment by his employer.

The Whistleblower Program was changed pursuant to section 7623(b) of the Internal Revenue Code, which was enacted on December 20, 2006.

The IRS Whistleblower Office opened in Washington, D.C. in early 2007.

The new IRS Whistleblower statute gives anyone with information about large-scale tax underpayments, including accounting errors or tax fraud up to 30% of any money collected based upon the information provided.

Tax Partner Scott A. Knott of The Ferraro Law Firm was quoted as saying in an April 8th press release at PR Newswire: “The case that resulted in an award yesterday took over three years to come to fruition, but because of how long it takes the IRS to audit and collect for a tax year, we advise clients that this is typically a 4-7 year process.”

Gregory S. Lynam, also a Tax Partner of the firm, was quoted as saying: “The IRS making good on Congress’s promise to pay for valuable information should also reassure potential whistleblowers with high quality information. Now the floodgates will open. The IRS could have a hard time handling all of the submissions they are going to receive.”

The Government Accounting Office (GAO) estimates the difference between what taxpayers pay and what is actually owed is nearly $350 billion per year.