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New IRS Whistleblower Rules Receive a “Mixed Review”

Posted  August 8, 2014

By Jason Enzler

The Internal Revenue Service issued final rules for the IRS whistleblower program yesterday.  Under the new rules, some government employees may now qualify as whistleblowers, and whistleblower bounties may be larger in some cases.  But the rules will not permit whistleblowers to receive awards when the government uses their information to secure recoveries through criminal tax proceedings.

The architect of the whistleblower program, Senator Charles Grassley, has given these new rules a “mixed review” according to Politico, which quotes the Senator as saying “My intent in drafting the law was simple.  If the whistleblower gives information that’s useful to the government and improves tax collection, the whistleblower should benefit. . . . The more barriers in place, the less law-abiding taxpayers will benefit from the whistleblower function.”  Given the whistleblower program’s somewhat lackluster results to date, change was certainly needed.  But only time will tell whether these rules go far enough.

The rules will go into effect on August 12, 2014.

Tagged in: IRS Whistleblower Reward Program,


1 Reply to New IRS Whistleblower Rules Receive a “Mixed Review”

  • FCA Aficionado says:

    IRS’ doesn’t seem to have a clue as to how to be practical when it comes to maximizing WB inputs and their related recoveries.

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