On November 5, 2012, the National Whistleblower Center filed a briefing paper/amicus brief with the Internal Revenue Service addressing key questions of law governing the IRS Whistleblower program. The brief, linked here, addresses the issue of “collected proceeds” under the IRS whistleblower law. The “collected proceeds” issue impacts hundreds if not thousands of cases in which the IRS must determine whether a whistleblower is entitled to a reward based on monies obtained by the U.S. government related to tax violations.
The brief was co-authored, pro bono, by myself and Dean Zerbe. In a statement issued by the NWC, Zerbe explained the importance of the briefing paper: “Whistleblowers are eligible for rewards based on the government recovering ‘collected proceeds.’ A narrow definition of this term will devastate the impact of this critical whistleblower law and result in a hardship to hundreds (if not thousands) of whistleblowers who lawfully report tax violations but who are found ineligible for a reward based on a restrictive and hyper-technical definition of the term ‘collected proceeds.’ Whistleblowers risk their careers to help detect fraud. They should not be doubly punished for their good deeds.”