IRS Promises to Start Showing Whistleblowers Some Love

photo courtesy of blogs.courant.com

The IRS appreciates getting tips that help them catch people who seek tax relief illegally, but they haven’t done a very good job of showing it over the years.  The relationship between the IRS and whistleblowers has been strained, to say the least.

The IRS Whistleblower Office was established in 2007, and for all we know it was set up in an empty warehouse staffed by crickets.  The Whistleblower Office is notorious for dragging out cases far too long, failing to communicate with whistleblowers to obtain key information, not reaching the correct decision on cases, and not paying out when the decision is favorable for the whistleblower.

However, in a June 20th memorandum, the IRS declared that it would make some concrete improvements to the Whistleblower Program (outlined below).

“Let’s Kiss & Make up”:

  1. Improve communication with whistleblowers by debriefing in most cases
  2. Act on cases in a timely manner
  3. Comprehensive review of Whistleblower Office procedures
  4. Established interim guidelines imposing 90-day deadlines at key stages of the review process

AND, if you happen to be an “external stakeholder,” (whoever that might be) then the IRS says it will be working with you to establish more permanent guidelines.

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