ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER
Starts With IRS Form 211
Counsel Can Help Prepare Form
You Are Protected From Employer Retaliation
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Whistleblower Office pays money to people who blow the whistle on persons who fail to pay the tax that they owe. If the IRS uses information provided by the whistleblower, it can award the whistleblower up to 30 percent of the additional tax, penalty and other amounts it collects. I.R.C. § 7623(b). There are specific procedures that must be followed in order to submit your application to the IRS and maintain your anonymity, to the extent permitted under law, in doing so. The IRS whistleblower attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. are aware of the rules and procedures, know how best to present your evidence to the IRS, and can assist you in submitting that information to the IRS with a goal toward a reward if the IRS recovers. If you have credible information of tax fraud, call pour attorneys today at (415)441-8669.
What are the rules for getting an award?
The law provides for two types of awards. If the taxes, penalties, interest and other amounts in dispute exceed $2 million, and a few other qualifications are met, the IRS will pay 15 percent to 30 percent of the amount collected. If the case deals with an individual, his or her annual gross income must be more than $200,000. If the whistleblower disagrees with the outcome of the claim, he or she can appeal to the Tax Court. These rules are found at Internal Revenue Code IRC Section 7623(b) – Whistleblower Rules.
The IRS also has an award program for other whistleblowers – generally those who do not meet the dollar thresholds of $2 million in dispute or cases involving individual taxpayers with gross income of less than $200,000. The awards through this program are less, with a maximum award of 15 percent up to $10 million. In addition, the awards are discretionary and the informant cannot dispute the outcome of the claim in Tax Court. The rules for these cases are found at Internal Revenue Code IRC Section 7623(a) – Informant Claims Program, and some of the rules are different from those that apply to cases involving more than $2 million.
Examples of tax fraud
There are all kinds of tax fraud committed by individual and corporate taxpayers. One of the largest forms of evasion – and one targeted most of all by IRS enforcement measures – is tax avoidance through use of offshore companies (to hide revenue) and offshore bank accounts (hiding income). Other types of evasion include underreporting of income, overstatement of deductions, abuse of tax credits and the like. Some schemes, such as offshore tax avoidance may also violate US banking laws. See, e.g., Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts Act (FBAR) (31 U.S.C. § 5314); Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) (26 U.S.C. § 1471 et seq.). Last year, the IRS awarded over $120 million to individuals who blew the whistle on tax fraud. Many of the whistleblowers are employees who discover their employer’s tax evasion maneuvers on the job. Companies. Those employees are protected from retaliation by their employers which can include demotion, re-assignment, suspension, or termination. See 26 U.S.C. § 7623. In addition to representing you in presenting tax fraud information to the IRS, the whistleblower litigators at Evans Law Firm can also represent employees in any suit for employer retaliation. Remedies include reinstatement, double back pay, interest, and attorneys’ fees and costs for bringing your lawsuit. See 26 U.S.C. § 7623.
Contact Us
If you have credible, original information of any kind of tax fraud, including offshore tax avoidance measures, use of foreign corporations and accounts to avoid taxation or the like, Ingrid M. Evans and the other IRS whistleblower and tax fraud attorneys at the Evans Law Firm can help. Ingrid and the other attorneys can be reached at (415) 441-8669, or by email at <a href=”mailto:info@evanslaw.com”>info@evanslaw.com</a>. Our firm also handles whistleblower actions under the Financial 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.
