Surgent's Understanding How the IRS Rewards Whistleblowers
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.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
Major Topics:
- 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
Designed For:
Accounting and Finance Professionals who need to understand various whistleblower programs under federal lawPrerequisite:
Experience with individual and business clientsAdditional Info:
You will receive an email from [email protected] with instructions on how to log onto your course shortly. If you do not receive the email within the hour, please check your spam filter.
For technical support, registration questions or other customer service-related inquiries, please call (800) 778-7436 or email [email protected]. Phones are staffed from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Thursday, and 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday.