The IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act strengthens protections and incentives for people who report tax law violations to the federal government. The bill allows whistleblowers to have their award disputes reviewed by the Tax Court using a complete legal standard rather than a limited appeal process, and it protects whistleblowers by allowing them to proceed anonymously in Tax Court proceedings unless the court finds a compelling public interest in revealing their identity. The legislation also exempts whistleblower awards from federal budget cuts, requires the IRS to report the top ten tax avoidance schemes disclosed by whistleblowers each year, and adds interest payments to awards when the IRS takes more than 12 months to issue a preliminary award recommendation after tax collection is complete. Additionally, the bill clarifies that whistleblowers can deduct attorney's fees from their taxable income. These changes take effect 180 days after enactment, with most provisions applying immediately to pending and future cases.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.