Tax Whistleblowers Get $8.8 Million Dollar Reward as IRS Revisits Earlier Decision and Triples Award Amount
Washington (PRWEB) September 8, 2022
The law firm of Zerbe, Miller, Fingeret, Frank, Jadav & Hunziker LLP (“ZMF Law”) announced today that two of its whistleblower clients received an award totaling $8.8 million dollars based on their information leading to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) collecting approximately $35 million dollars in corporate income taxes.
“My clients and I are extremely heartened that the IRS revisited its decision and more than tripled the award for these two whistleblowers after we made an appeal. It is very gratifying that the IRS looked closely and considered our legal arguments – and ultimately sided with the whistleblowers,” said Dean Zerbe, a partner at ZMF Law who specializes in representing tax whistleblowers and is the attorney for the two whistleblowers.
“It is difficult for anyone to revisit a decision. I commend the new director of the IRS Whistleblower Office – Mr. John Hinman – for being willing to make the hard call, and the right call. My hope is that this whistleblower-friendly decision heralds a new start for the IRS whistleblower program. Great thanks especially to Ms. Dawn Applebaum, Program Manager for the Whistleblower Office for her stalwart professionalism and dedication to the whistleblower program as well as Lev Glikman of the Whistleblower Office for his long-time stewardship of this claim. A special thanks to the IRS examiners who saw the value of the whistleblowers’ information and took action to recover the tax dollars owed – showcasing the value of the whistleblower program. Finally – and most importantly – I commend the whistleblowers for coming forward and applying their extraordinary knowledge and insightful analysis to discovering this corporate tax fraud and providing the road map to the IRS to successfully bring action,” said Mr. Zerbe.
The IRS’s most recent report on the Whistleblower Program – FY 2021 – showed a dramatic decrease in the amount of dollars collected under the tax whistleblower program and the amount of whistleblower awards – with $245 million dollars collected and $36 million in awards made. These numbers were down from the high in 2018 of $1.441 billion in dollars collected thanks to whistleblowers and awards of $312 million.
“The whistleblower award in this case is particularly interesting given that the whistleblowers provided information to the IRS about significant tax evasion by a specific company – based on the whistleblower’s informed knowledge of the company and industry, as well as analyzing a wide range of public documents. The whistleblowers’ detailed analysis provided the IRS the path forward to take action on this corporation’s tax evasion. While the IRS has been clear that it is primarily interested in knowledgeable whistleblowers with inside information about specific tax evasion – this award shows that to its credit the IRS is also willing to look at awarding whistleblowers who have engaged in significant analysis of information (including public information) that points to specific tax violations,” said Steven Miller, former acting Commissioner of the IRS and partner at ZMF Law.
