HMRC Whistleblower Lawyers

The United Kingdom now rewards tax whistleblowers.

Under HMRC’s Strengthened Reward Scheme, launched November 26, 2025, individuals who report serious tax avoidance or evasion can receive between 15% and 30% of the tax collected when the recovery exceeds £1.5 million — with no cap on the size of the reward. But unlike the U.S. programs it is modeled on, the HMRC reward is entirely discretionary. Whether you receive anything — and how much — can depend on how well your case is prepared, documented, and presented.

Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto helped build the U.S. whistleblower reward model that HMRC is now implement. For decades, our founding partners have represented whistleblowers in the largest international tax fraud and money laundering cases in history — including British whistleblowers, such as Howard Wilkinson, Danske Bank whistleblower who exposed a $230 billion Russian money laundering scheme.

If you have information about serious tax evasion, contact us for a free, confidential consultation before you report to anyone.

The HMRC program offers U.S.-style reward percentages without U.S.-style rights, and that gap is where whistleblowers lose cases — and rewards.

• Discretionary Award: even if your information leads to a £100 million recovery, HMRC decides whether to pay you and how much. There is no statutory entitlement and no appeal to a court. A claim built to demonstrate original, credible, decisive information gives HMRC every reason to exercise its discretion in your favor.
• Single Submission: HMRC’s process is a single online submission with no attachments, no feedback, and no follow-up contact. You cannot supplement a weak report or explain yourself later. The initial filing must be complete and compelling on day one.
• Eligibility Traps: reporting anonymously forfeits any reward. Information HMRC already has — or could have found routinely — pays nothing. Attempting to gather additional evidence on your own can cross legal lines that put both your reward and you at risk.
• Limited Protections: HMRC treats reports as private and confidential, and UK workers have retaliation protections under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 — but those protections compensate retaliation after the fact rather than preventing it. Our client Howard Wilkinson reported the Danske Bank money laundering scheme through proper internal channels and had his identity leaked in retaliation anyway.
• Potentially Better Programs: if the scheme touches the United States — U.S. taxpayers, U.S. banks, U.S. securities or commodities markets — you may qualify under U.S. reward laws that pay mandatory awards to qualifying whistleblowers, including non-U.S. citizens. The order and manner in which you disclose can determine your eligibility everywhere, and understanding this first should be a priority.

Founding partners Stephen M. Kohn and David K. Colapinto have spent their careers turning whistleblower reward programs into instruments that actually pay whistleblowers — litigating landmark cases, helping draft key U.S. and U.K. whistleblower laws, and securing precedent-setting awards.

• Bradley Birkenfeld — the $104 million award. Our firm represented the UBS banker whose disclosures dismantled Swiss banking secrecy, drove billions of dollars in U.S. tax recoveries, and produced one of the largest individual whistleblower awards in history under the IRS Whistleblower Program — the very program HMRC’s scheme is modeled on.
• Howard Wilkinson — the Danske Bank whistleblower. We represent the British trader who exposed the $230 billion Danske Bank money laundering scheme, the largest in history — a case that demonstrates both the power of cross-border whistleblowing and the risks UK whistleblowers face.
• Decades of international representation. Our clients include whistleblowers across Europe, including the United Kingdom, most of whom remain confidential. We have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars in awards under the IRS, SEC, CFTC, and anti-money laundering whistleblower programs and the False Claims Act.

When the reward is discretionary, credibility and experience is essential if you’re to bring a tax whistleblower claim under the new HMRC whistleblower program.

• Case evaluation across every available program. We assess whether your information supports a claim with HMRC, with U.S. authorities under the IRS, SEC, CFTC, or AML whistleblower programs, or both in parallel — and sequence the disclosures to protect your eligibility in each.
• Building the strongest possible submission. We help you organize, document, and frame your information so the report is specific, credible, and decisive — maximizing the factors that drive reward decisions in a one-shot, no-appeal process.
• Protecting your identity and your position. We develop a confidentiality and anti-retaliation strategy before any disclosure is made, drawing on decades of experience protecting whistleblowers whose governments and employers could not.
• Keeping you inside the eligibility lines. We advise you on what to do — and, just as important, what not to do — so that anonymity rules, evidence-gathering restrictions, and prior-disclosure traps never cost you a reward.
• Advocating for the maximum reward. When a recovery is made, we press the case for a reward at the top of the range, supported by a record of your contribution built from the very first filing.

Under HMRC’s official guidance, whistleblowers who report serious tax avoidance or evasion — typically involving large companies, wealthy individuals, or offshore schemes — can receive 15% to 30% of the tax collected (excluding penalties and interest) when their information leads to the recovery of at least £1.5 million. Reports are filed through a secure online form, anonymous reports are ineligible for rewards, and payments are made only after cases close, often years later.

For a complete breakdown of eligibility, exclusions, the reporting process, and how the UK scheme compares to the U.S. IRS program, read our HMRC Whistleblower Reward Program: A Comprehensive Overview.

Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto represents whistleblowers on a contingency-fee basis. You pay no attorney fees unless we recover a reward on your behalf. Consultations are free, confidential, and protected by attorney-client privilege to the fullest extent of the law.