Surgent's Understanding How the IRS Rewards Whistleblowers - On-Demand Webcast

Overview

In 2006, Congress passed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act. Prior to the Act’s passage, rewards to individuals who provided information to the IRS regarding tax fraud were capped at $10 million. The Tax Relief and Health Care Act authorized the IRS to create a Whistleblower Office dedicated to investigating, processing and recovering claims concerning the underpayment of taxes. Under the IRS’ new program, whistleblowers may recover 15 to 30 percent of the amount collected provided the taxes and amounts in dispute exceed $2 million. If the whistleblower’s claim does not meet these criteria, the IRS may still consider granting an award under its pre-2006 Tax Relief Act discretionary authority. Given the rapid growth of this program, practitioners should have a basic understanding of the procedure and content for IRS Whistleblower claims, both from the perspective of a claimant’s potential to recover and a taxpayer’s exposure to liability.

Highlights

Overview of the law that authorizes the IRS to reward whistleblowers who submit information leading to recovery
Review of the whistleblower claim process
Criteria for eligible claims
Case studies of significant claim recoveries paid by the IRS to whistleblowers
Issues underlying whether a practitioner should ever act as the whistleblower
Addressing delays inherent in the whistleblower claim process
The structure and role of the Whistleblower Office
Best practices for the submission of a good whistleblower claim
Working with other governmental divisions in processing whistleblower claims
A brief overview of other, non-IRS whistleblower claims

Prerequisites

Experience with individual and business clients

Designed For

Accounting and Finance Professionals who need to understand various whistleblower programs under federal law

Objectives

Understand how to submit a good whistleblower claim that satisfies IRS criteria
Understand the process by which the IRS reviews and pursues whistleblower claims
Learn about large recoveries by IRS whistleblowers
Understand non-IRS whistleblower claim programs including claims arising under the False Claims Act, Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank