ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Taxpayer First Act Helps Whistleblowers
New Privacy Safeguards, Quicker Response Time, and Protections Against Retaliation
The House and Senate acted this month to strengthen the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Whistleblower Program and help whistleblowers who bring forth evidence of taxpayer fraud. The Taxpayer First Act (TFA), which the House passed on June 10 and the Senate on June 13, enhances whistleblower privacy safeguards and extends anti-retaliation protections for whistleblowers who come forward with information regarding tax fraud. Whistleblowers may have original information regarding various types of tax avoidance schemes including offshore tax avoidance, abusive tax shelters, accounting fraud, and more. If you have information regarding tax fraud, including offshore tax avoidance schemes and violations of foreign bank account reporting requirements, the California and San Francisco whistleblower/qui tam attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. know how to present your evidence to the IRS with the best chance for you to receive an eventual reward. Call the whistleblower/qui tam attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. (415)441-8669, and we can help.
The TFA improves the IRS whistleblower program by authorizing the IRS to communicate with whistleblowers during the processing of their claims, while also protecting taxpayer privacy. Section 1405(a)(1) requires the IRS Whistleblower office to provide the following status updates to a whistleblower or the whistleblower’s attorney:
- Within 60 days after a case for which the whistleblower has provided information has been referred for an audit or examination, the IRS will inform the whistleblower of that referral.
- Within 60 days of a taxpayer making a payment of tax due to the whistleblower’s disclosure, the IRS will provide notice of such payment to the whistleblower.
The TFA also extends greater protection against employer retaliation for individuals who report tax fraud by creating a private right of action for tax whistleblowers who suffer retaliation. It prohibits any “employer, officer, employee, contractor, subcontractor, or agent” of an employer from retaliating against a whistleblower. Department of Labor (DOL) and Supreme Court precedent construing substantially similar statutory text in the Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower protection law suggests that: 1) individuals (not just employers) can be held liable for retaliation; and 2) a contractor of an employer that retaliates against a whistleblower for disclosing a customer’s tax fraud or tax underpayment would be liable for retaliation.
Our lawyers know how to advance your IRS whistleblower case through application, investigation, and administrative and/or judicial review with the goal of obtaining an award for your information. Our attorneys can also represent you against employers who retaliate against you for blowing the whistle on fraud.
Contact Us
If you have information regarding offshore tax avoidance schemes, violations of foreign bank account reporting requirements, abusive tax shelters, or other tax fraud contact Ingrid M. Evans and the other IRS whistleblower and tax fraud attorneys at the Evans Law Firm at (415) 441-8669, or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>. Our whistleblower attorneys also handle cases involving bank fraud under FIRREA/FIAFEA, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission Whistleblower Program, the Securities and Exchange Commission Whistleblower Program, False Claims Act cases, the FINRA Whistleblower Office and the California False Claims Act. We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We also handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.
