Whistleblower advocates have long called for reforms to the IRS Whistleblower Program. “This is unfair and our government needs whistleblowers to be incentivized to put an end to these frauds.” “Every penny that a tax cheat does not pay means additional burdens on the middle class,” Kohn said. Highlights of the program’s year included a growth in potential proceeds (amounts assessed attributable to whistleblowers) by over $1 billion, and a submission processing rate of 21.3 days. “There’s been a lot of lessons learned, and we are optimistic that they are improving the program and moving cases along,” Kohn told TaxNotes. Kohn hopes that increases in the IRS Whistleblower Office budget, and its new leadership, will help the increase in awards for FY 2023. Kohn, who recently released Rules for Whistleblowers: A Handbook for Doing What’s Right, represented tax whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld in his $104 million reward case back in 2012. 66 whistleblowers waited over 10 years, and 14 awards were never paid out because the Claimant passed away during the duration of their case. In FY 2022, the processing time was most commonly between 4-6 years. The IRS also reported the average wait times between a claim being submitted and an award being paid. Similarly to other whistleblower reward laws, qualified whistleblowers are eligible to obtain a financial reward of between 15 and 30% of the collected sanctions.Įxamples of frauds that are open to reporting on under the program include offshore tax havens, shell bank accounts, false reporting on tax returns, pyramiding (or withholding employee taxes and intentionally not remitting taxes to the IRS, then filing bankruptcy and starting another company) and failure to pay or report payroll taxes. and abroad, who report tax evasion and fraud. The IRS Whistleblower Program is available to whistleblowers, both in the U.S. “The IRS whistleblower program continues to lag behind other similar programs in the amount of awards to whistleblowers,” Stephen Kohn, founding partner at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto LLP, said.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |