IRS May Be Unintentionally Discouraging Whistleblowers From Reporting Tax Cheats

Government Executive: Private-sector whistleblowers with knowledge of unpaid taxes may be discouraged from coming forward if the Internal Revenue Service doesn’t improve the form it uses to collect that data, a watchdog found.

Last February, Congress changed the law to require the IRS to include penalties for foreign bank account reporting violations when the agency calculates whistleblower awards. But the agency neglected to change Form 11369, which provides the data on which award amounts for credible whistleblowers are determined, according to a report released this week by the Government Accountability Office.

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