Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa drafted the 2006 provisions that improved the IRS whistleblower office to cut tax fraud. The IRS has released its whistleblower office’s Fiscal Year 2015 annual report to Congress. The report says that since 2007, whistleblower information has helped the IRS collect more than $3 billion in taxes that otherwise would have been lost to fraud, and the IRS has awarded more than $403 million to whistleblowers. Grassley made the following comment on the report.
“The uptick in awards paid out under the mandatory award program is good news. Whistleblowers have long been frustrated with the lack of awards, which may be part of the reason claims were down 17 percent from previous years. I hope the increase in awards will reverse this trend and send a signal of things to come. I also was glad to see positive statements about the program by the new director of the whistleblower office, as well as his effort to release this report in a much more timely manner than in previous years. The information about the whistleblower program is helpful for the public and for Congress in knowing how the whistleblower office is performing. I appreciate that the report adopted GAO recommendations that will make it easier for Congress and others to evaluate the program from year to year. But I’m concerned that it looks as if the IRS has dropped some of the more detailed information it provided before about how long it takes claims to move through each step of the process. That’s an important data point. Whistleblowers often put their livelihoods on the line to point out tax fraud, and they need assurances that the IRS will move their cases along as quickly as possible.”
The report is available here.
-30-
