Major Ruling From Tax Court Strengthens IRS Whistleblowers

In a major decisions this week, The United States Tax Court declared that it has control and jurisdiction to oversee the Internal Revenue Service regarding a law made by Congress that mandates between 15-30% bounty for informants. The cases involves the estate of Clarence Dillon Eweson and his daughter Dorothy Dillon Eweson who died in 2005 at the age of 92. The informant is William Prentiss Cooper, voyfiend of Ann Peipers, widow of an Eweson grandchild. The claim was that some heirs improperly maneuvered to evade taxes by leaving a trust out of the estate in probate. Cooper is a Nashville lawyer and he filed papers called Form 211 :award for original information” with the IRS asking that he receive an informants award. At stake was $100 million in unpaid estate taxes. The IRS answered nine months later denying his claims. Cooper filed a lawsuit in Tax Court asking for a judicial review of the matter and an order directing the IRS to re-evaluate. In a 12-page ruling dated July 8, 2010, Tax Court Judge Diane L. Kroupa declared that the law gave the court jurisdiction over the case even when the IRS decides to deny. This ruling gives whistleblowers new power and places the IRS on notice to do its job.