Understanding How the IRS Rewards Whistleblowers (UHIR)

Overview

In 2006, Congress passed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act. Prior to the Act’s passage, rewards to individuals who provided information to the IRS regarding tax fraud were capped at $10 million. The Tax Relief and Health Care Act authorized the IRS to create a Whistleblower Office dedicated to investigating, processing and recovering claims concerning the underpayment of taxes. Under the IRS’ new program, whistleblowers may recover 15 to 30 percent of the amount collected provided the taxes and amounts in dispute exceed $2 million. If the whistleblower’s claim does not meet these criteria, the IRS may still consider granting an award under its pre-2006 Tax Relief Act discretionary authority. Given the rapid growth of this program, practitioners should have a basic understanding of the procedure and content for IRS Whistleblower claims, both from the perspective of a claimant’s potential to recover and a taxpayer’s exposure to liability.

Major Topics:

• Overview of the law that authorizes the IRS to reward whistleblowers who submit information leading to recovery
• Review of the whistleblower claim process
• Criteria for eligible claims
• Case studies of significant claim recoveries paid by the IRS to whistleblowers
• Issues underlying whether a practitioner should ever act as the whistleblower
• Addressing delays inherent in the whistleblower claim process
• The structure and role of the Whistleblower Office
• Best practices for the submission of a good whistleblower claim
• Working with other governmental divisions in processing whistleblower claims
• A brief overview of other, non-IRS whistleblower claims

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how to submit a good whistleblower claim that satisfies IRS criteria
• Understand the process by which the IRS reviews and pursues whistleblower claims
• Learn about large recoveries by IRS whistleblowers
• Understand non-IRS whistleblower claim programs including claims arising under the False Claims Act, Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank