On September 11, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Whistleblower Office announced that the Initial Claim Evaluation (ICE) team from the Small Business/Self-Employed Division (SB/SE) had joined the Whistleblower Office as part of its new organizational structure.
The restructuring is part of efforts to strengthen the IRS Whistleblower Program, a hugely successful whistleblower award program that has been hampered by issues in recent years.
According to the IRS, “the ICE Team will continue to serve as the primary receipt and control function performing whistleblower claim intake, monitoring, and award processing. They also respond to correspondence and telephone inquiries from internal and external stakeholders.”
“Our new organizational structure, and our significant efforts in increasing our staffing levels will allow us to continue investing in services for whistleblowers and representatives through timely award payments and communications, data and analytic improvement efforts, and increasing program awareness,” the IRS further adds.
“This restructuring is none too soon,” says whistleblower attorney Stephen M. Kohn of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto. “The efforts by the IRS to improve its whistleblower program are very welcome and much needed.”
The IRS Whistleblower Program offers protections and monetary awards to whistleblowers reporting tax fraud. The IRS notes that “whistleblower information is an important component of effective tax administration and contributes to the identification of non-compliance and reducing the tax gap.”
While the program has been hugely successful, since 2007 whistleblowers have allowed the IRS to recover nearly $7 billion, in recent years it has been plagued by issues. Most notably, award payments can take over 10 years to be processed. These massive delays are undermining the program, according to advocates.
Restructuring and staffing increases are aimed to help reduce these delays. The IRS also recently updated its whistleblower disclosure form as part its efforts to improve the program.
While advocates like Kohn support the IRS’s reform efforts, they also argue that Congressional action is needed.
In March 2023, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced the IRS Whistleblower Improvement Act which makes a number of technical reforms to the IRS Whistleblower Program and is widely supported by whistleblower advocates.
NWC has published an Action Alert allowing whistleblower supporters to write to Congress calling for the passage of the IRS Whistleblower Improvement Act.
Join NWC in Taking Action:
Further Reading:
IRS Whistleblower Program Must Drop Fees, Add Interest to Thrive
IRS Whistleblowers Led to Over $337 Million in Collections in FY 2023