According to the IRS Oversight Board’s recent report to Congress, the IRS paid $53 million last year to 122 whistleblowers. This is an average of nearly $435,000 per whistleblower. The whistleblower awards last year average 14.6 percent of the amounts collected by the IRS. As noted in the report, the law requires the IRS to pay awards if the information provided “substantially contributes to the collection of tax, penalties, interest, and other amounts when the amounts in dispute are more than $2,000,000.” The award ranges are based on “percentages of the collected proceeds.” The law is designed to encourage people “with knowledge of significant tax noncompliance to provide that information to the IRS.” According to the report, the IRS “continues to receive submissions from whistleblowers, many of whom claim to have inside knowledge of the transactions they are reporting. They often provide extensive documentation to support their claims.”
John Sinatra is a partner in the Business Litigation Practice at Hodgson Russ LLP. You can reach him at jsinatra@hodgsonruss.com.