On June 13, the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) sent a letter to the Senate Finance Committee urging for the provisions of the bipartisan IRS Whistleblower Improvement Act to be included in the budget reconciliation bill being debated in the Senate.
Since 2006, the IRS Whistleblower Program has become an integral part of the IRS’s enforcement efforts by incentivizing insiders to come forward and disclose hard-to-detect misconduct. Whistleblower disclosures have led to the collection of over $6 billion from tax fraudsters.
However, the program has struggled in recent years as delays have grown and payouts to whistleblowers have dropped. While recent administrative reforms have strengthened the program, advocates believe that it has even more potential.
For the past few years, advocates have been calling for the passage of the bipartisan IRS Whistleblower Improvement Act. Introduced in the last session of Congress by Senators Grassley and Ron Wyden (D-OR) the bill makes a number of reforms to the program. In January, Senators Wyden and Mike Crapo (R-ID) unveiled a discussion draft of a bipartisan bill offering reforms to the IRS, including the provisions previously found in the IRS Whistleblower Improvement Act.
These provisions have not been included in the One Big Beautiful Act, however, and NWC believes the bill is a key opportunity for these critical reforms to be passed.
“By including these provisions in the One Big Beautiful Act, Congress will be increasing the ability of the IRS to recover unpaid taxes from fraudsters, bolstering the federal budget in one of the most efficient means possible,” the letter states.
“An IRS Whistleblower Program which works for whistleblowers is necessary for the program to reach its full potential as an immensely cost-effective enforcement tool with an expansive deterrent effect,” the letter adds. “The technical reforms found in the IRS Whistleblower Improvement Act make the program more attractive to would-be-whistleblowers by addressing the debilitating delays and hurdles to full award payments currently plaguing the program.”
Dean Zerbe, partner at Zerbe, Miller, Fingeret, Frank and Jadav, LLP and Senior Policy Analyst at the National Whistleblower Center, helped lead the efforts of drafting the legislation which created the IRS Whistleblower Office. During a recent appearance on the Whistleblower of the Week podcast, Zerbe explained the need for the reforms provisions advocated for by NWC.
National Whistleblower Center has set up an Action Alert allowing individuals to write to their members of Congress urging them to pass the reforms to strengthen the IRS Whistleblower Program.
Join NWC in Taking Action:
Reform the IRS Whistleblower Program
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