The Internal Revenue Service has awarded $11.6 million to a whistleblower this week and said that as many as 10 more payouts will be announced shortly by the agency. Under the IRS whistleblower program whistleblowers reporting cases involving $2 million or more of unpaid taxes are eligible for awards as much as 30% of what the IRS recovers.
So far, only one major reward recipient has publicly identified himself, Bradley Birkenfield who received an award of $104 million, the largest ever.
The name of this week’s whistleblower has not been released but it is known that he was a corporate officer who resigned and the claim involved a number of very weathy individuals whom the business helped to evade taxes.
The statute also places a 10% cap on awards to whistleblowers in certain cases where there have been prior public disclosures of their allegations. Rewards can also be reduced if whistleblowers planned and initiated the actions that led to the underpayments of tax.
The new IRS statute provides for the creation of a Whistleblower Office within 12 months to handle incoming whistleblower claims, and it requires the Secretary to report annually to Congress on the results.
Jeffrey Newman represents whistleblowers.
