The Internal Revenue Service's whistleblower program remains robust but could use help from Capitol Hill to stay that way.
According to the office's 2023
The total number of awards paid, however, decreased from 132 in 2022 to 121 in 2023. Although the number of awards decreased, the number of claims related to those awards was 1,234 in 2023, compared to 396 claims the previous year, according to the report, which covered Oct. 1, 2022, through Sept. 30, 2023.
The 10 most common allegations submitted for 2023 related to (from most to least):
- Unreported or under-reported income;
- Overstated or false deductions;
- Failure to file a tax or information return;
- General allegations of fraud, tax fraud, wire fraud, insurance fraud and so on;
- Employee versus subcontractor;
- Rental income;
- Under-reported wages/cash under the table;
- Capital gains tax;
- Money laundering; and,
- International/offshore issues.
"The whistleblower community welcomes the new director of the Whistleblower Office John Hinman's efforts to 'transform' the program by adding staff and improving management systems," said Stephen Kohn, chairman of the National Whistleblower Center and founding partner of the whistleblower law firm of Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto in Washington, D.C., in the report. "However, Congress needs to immediately pass the bipartisan IRS Whistleblower Improvement Act, a bill that is necessary to make the program work."
The Whistleblower Office is developing an improvement plan, the report adds, focusing on staffing, systems and processes, gathering and protecting better data and increasing collaboration with IRS compliance functions, IRS Counsel, whistleblower practitioners and other stakeholders.
Since 2007, the Whistleblower Office has made awards of $1.2 billion based on the collection of $6.9 billion.
