IRS Highlights Whistleblower Program in Honor of National Whistleblower Day
On July 28, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Whistleblower Office released a statement in honor of National Whistleblower Day. For the tenth consecutive year the U.S. Senate has designated July 30 as National Whistleblower Appreciation Day, and in recognition of the day the IRS Whistleblower Office highlighted the success of the IRS Whistleblower Program and its importance to the agency’s enforcement efforts.
“Whistleblower information has been an incredibly effective aid to IRS compliance efforts,” said IRS Whistleblower Office Director John Hinman. “Since issuing its first award in 2007 through fiscal year 2022, the IRS has paid $1.1 billion in awards to over 2,500 whistleblowers based on the successful collection of $6.6 billion from non-compliant taxpayers.”
“Although the IRS uses increasingly sophisticated data analytics and other methods to detect non-compliance with tax laws, it needs help from whistleblowers – people with firsthand knowledge of non-compliance who are willing to share what they know so the IRS can investigate it when warranted,” the Whistleblower Office’s statement reads.
“Whistleblower information that the IRS can act on is an important component of effective tax administration and contributes to identifying non-compliance and reducing the tax gap,” the statement continues. “The IRS appreciates the valuable assistance it has received from whistleblowers and the tremendous support the whistleblower practitioner community provides to the Whistleblower Program.”
The monetary awards offered through the IRS Whistleblower Program revolutionized tax enforcement. In recent years, however, the program has been plagued by a number of issues, including massive delays, which have greatly undermined its efficacy. Whistleblower advocates are calling for the passage of the bipartisan IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act of 2023 to address the program’s issues.
Read the IRS Whistleblower Office’s National Whistleblower Day Statement
