IRS Rewards Whistleblowers

IRS Pays Whistleblowers to Turn in Tax Cheats

Since the passage of the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has rewarded thousands of Americans for original information on tax cheats. In its first decade, the whistleblower program helped the IRS recover $3.4 billion, and resulted in payouts of $465 million in awards to whistleblowers. The process begins with an application from the whistleblower containing information about the tax avoider and the nature of the violation known to the whistleblower, and a description of how the whistleblower knows the suspected individual or company.

A specific department within the IRS acts on the application. The process takes time, most cases taking 5-7 years to resolve and many are rejected because the evidence isn’t specific enough or credible. The information also has to be “original,” that is, previously unknown to the IRS from any other source. It helps if the applicant seeks legal representation of the case from lawyers who know what the application must include to move forward. The results, and the wait, can be worth it, however. The applicant may receive up to 15-30% of the amount recovered by the IRS.

The number of whistleblowers coming forward to report tax fraud rose dramatically last year. Frequency of award payouts, and the amounts, rose as well. IRS response time also improved, and case backlogs decreased significantly. If you have information about a tax cheat, or suspicions that criminal tax avoidance is occurring, now is the time to come forward. We at Evans Law Firm have experience in whistleblower cases (sometimes referred to as qui tam cases), and are ready to help you.

Contact Us

If you have information regarding tax fraud and are looking to be a whistleblower in San Francisco County or in any California county, contact the Evans Law Firm whistleblower/qui tam attorneys at (415) 441-8669, or by email at info@evanslaw.com. Our attorneys have experience with complex qui tam or whistleblower cases, complex financial contract cases and cases against large insurance companies. We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.