Thursday, February 10, 2011

The IRS Whistleblower Program - qualify for awards based upon amount of proceeds collected

How whistleblowers who alert the IRS to violations of the tax law can qualify for awards based upon amount of proceeds collected from, and refunds denied to, reported violators.

February 10, 2011
by Thomas Wechter, JD, LLM

The recent turnover of Swiss bank account data highlights the role of whistleblowers in U.S. enforcement. There was the UBS banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, Tax Analysts' 2009 person, whose whistleblowing brought the extent of offshore tax evasion to the attention of the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). As his reward for filing a claim with the IRS for a Whistleblower reward related to his disclosures, Birkenfeld was given a 40-month sentence for conspiring to commit tax fraud because of his counseling of UBS clients. Then, there Rudolf Elmer, manager of the Caribbean operations of Julius Baer, who turned over information on more than 2,000 undeclared foreign bank accounts to WikiLeaks. It is still too early to tell whether Elmer and Birkenfeld will received whistleblower awards, but if they do, they stand to be awarded billions of dollars.


rest at http://www.cpa2biz.com/Content/media/PRODUCER_CONTENT/Newsletters/Articles_2011/Tax/WhistleblowerProgram.jsp

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