When the Tax Relief and Healthcare Act of 2006 was signed into law on December 20, 2006, Congress hoped to encourage businessmen and women to come forward with information concerning tax cheats. The new IRS Whistleblower Program (found at 26 U.S.C. § 7623) purposely focuses on large claims. To qualify…
IRS Seeks Documents from Citigroup and Lehman Brothers Holdings on Derivatives Now that Congress has created a meaningful IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program, tax whistleblower attorneys took note of yesterday’s report that the IRS is looking into whether derivatives trades for hedge funds and other investors are being used to avoid…
Most Defendants in KPMG Case Escape Prosecution–At Least For Now As we have written about previously, abusive and fraudulent tax shelters promoted by accounting firms are high on the list of conduct that the IRS (and IRS tax whistleblowers) seek to stop. Today, the government’s prosecution of 13 former KPMG…
IRS Tax Whistleblowers with Knowledge of Stock Option Backdating Should Take Note Now that the IRS has an effective IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program for whistleblowers who report tax fraud, tax evasion, or other violations of the Internal Revenue laws, the IRS’ recent announcement of focusing on back-dating of stock options…
Even though the Internal Revenue Service has had a Rewards Program for many years, until recently, there was very little encouragement for tax whistleblowers or informants to come forward concerning their knowledge of the under-reporting of taxes. While it is well known that income tax evasion costs taxpayers approximately $300…
IRS whistleblowers and whistleblower attorneys take note: accounting firms participating in selling tax shelters were jolted by today’s announcement of the indictment of four Ernst & Young partners for tax fraud conspiracy and other federal criminal charges relating to tax shelters. The four accountants were alleged to have marketed tax…
I posted earlier today on this whistle blower lawyer blog about the comments of the Director of the new IRS Whistleblower Office, Stephen Whitlock, on how the IRS Whistleblower program is off to a good start, with credible claims and supporting evidence having been submitted by whistleblowers and their attorneys.…
The head of the new IRS Whistleblower Office, Stephen Whitlock, reports that the new IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program is off to a strong start. Today’s Wall Street Journal quotes Mr. Whitlock as saying that the claims submitted to the IRS Whistleblower Office to date appear to have credibility and have…
We have had many calls this week from potential clients in our IRS Whistleblower practice, probably because msn.com featured an article about the IRS Whistleblower program on Monday that linked to our whistleblower lawyer blog. As I have explained to many whistleblower clients, the new regulations for the IRS Whistleblower…
The new IRS Whistleblower Rewards Program that we have been discussing is featured in the March 13 issue of Smart Money Magazine–and Smart Money cites our Whistleblower blog and quotes one of our authors. The Smart Money reporter, Lisa Scherzer, contacted our firm, Finch McCranie, LLP, to discuss the IRS…