IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act

Key Points

• This bill makes it easier and safer for people to report major tax fraud to the IRS. It ensures that whistleblowers can keep their names private when they go to court, unless a judge decides there is a very strong reason the public needs to know who they are.
• If the IRS takes too long to pay a whistleblower after the government has already collected the stolen tax money, the agency will have to pay interest on that award. This helps make sure people aren't waiting years for their promised reward without any extra compensation for the delay.
• When a whistleblower disagrees with the IRS about their reward, they can take the case to the Tax Court. This bill allows the court to look at all the evidence from scratch, including new information that wasn't available before, rather than just looking at what the IRS originally decided.
• The IRS would be required to include a list of the top 10 tax-dodging schemes reported by whistleblowers in its yearly report. This helps the public and Congress see exactly what kind of cheating is being caught and how much money is being recovered.
• The bill also fixes a technical rule about taxes. It ensures that whistleblowers can properly deduct the money they pay to their lawyers from their taxes, so they aren't taxed on money that they never actually got to keep.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.