In 2006, Congress passed a law creating a modern whistleblower award program at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Now, the Congressional staffer and legal expert who helped lead the efforts to write that law is advocating for reforms to strengthen the IRS Whistleblower Program.
Dean Zerbe, partner at Zerbe, Miller, Fingeret, Frank and Jadav, LLP and Senior Policy Analyst at the National Whistleblower Center, served as the Senior Counsel and Tax Counsel on the Senate Finance Committee for Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA). In that role, he led the efforts of drafting the legislation which created the IRS Whistleblower Office and established a new framework for the consideration of whistleblower submissions and award payments.
Since then, 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, Zerbe and other 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.
“Tax whistleblowers should be heartened that the new Chairman of the Finance Committee – Senator Crapo (R-ID) – has worked with Ranking Member Wyden (D-OR) on a bipartisan IRS administrative reform bill that brings much-needed changes to the IRS whistleblower program,” Zerbe stated in January. “These changes to the IRS whistleblower program – based on the work of Senator Grassley (R-IA) and Wyden will go far in strengthening and improving the tax whistleblower program.”
“Especially important is that the reforms include de novo review of whistleblower cases by the Tax Court; exemption from sequestration on awards and interest to run on awards that are improperly delayed,” Zerbe further stated. “In addition, the proposed reforms make it easier for the IRS to work closely with whistleblowers while protecting taxpayer information. As the new administration looks to create greater efficiency of government, it is clear that working closer with whistleblowers is a key way for the IRS to be more effective and better at targeting limited exam resources on those individuals who are evading tax laws while leaving honest taxpayers in peace. This new bill will help achieve those goals.”
Zerbe is the most recent guest on the Whistleblower of the Week podcast, where he discussed the history of the IRS Whistleblower Program and why the reforms of the IRS Whistleblower Improvement Act are so urgently needed.
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:
Listen to Whistleblower of the Week:
Successes and Flaws of the IRS Whistleblower Program: Dean Zerbe