ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Taxpayer First Act Helps Whistleblowers
New Protections Against Retaliation for Employees Blowing Whistle on Tax Fraud
Awards Exceed $312 Million
Last year alone, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) awarded more than $312 million to individual citizens who blew the whistle on tax fraud. Much of the fraud included the use of offshore bank accounts and corporations to avoid tax. 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 Internal Revenue Service with the best chance for you to receive an eventual reward. Your information may also involve violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (FIRREA). Call the whistleblower/qui tam attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. (415)441-8669, and we can help make sure your information is presented to the Internal Revenue Service and any other applicable government agency policing the kind of fraud you are reporting.
Any IRS whistleblower case begins with an application to the Whistleblower Office of the IRS. Our whistleblower attorneys will assist you in completion of the application and in assembling your documentation regarding any alleged fraud. The Internal Revenue Service requires that the information is specific, supported, and credible; not a guess. The program looks for a “significant Federal tax issue,” not small tax mistakes. Typically, insiders/employees are the individuals most likely to have credible information of fraud such as offshore tax avoidance and undeclared foreign bank accounts. Insiders may have similar
Recent legislation extends greater protection against employer retaliation. (the “Taypayer First Act of 2018” (TFA), H.R. 3151) The TFA prohibits any “employer, officer, employee, contractor, subcontractor, or agent” of an employer from retaliating against a whistleblower. If a whistleblower has been retaliated against for blowing the whistle on tax fraud, he or she may now file a complaint with the Secretary of Labor, and if after 180 days the Secretary has not issued a decision the whistleblower may go to the district court. The remedies for the whistleblower include compensatory damages of reinstatement, and 200 percent of back pay and all lost benefits, with interest and compensation for other special damages including litigation costs, expert witness fees, and reasonable attorney fees. Our attorneys can represent you against employers who retaliate against you for blowing the whistle on fraud in addition to representing you in your underlying Internal Revenue Service whistleblower application.
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 the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (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.
