An in-house accountant disclosed a tax fraud scheme by his former employer, a financial services firm, to the IRS that ultimately resulted in the IRS recovering approximately $20 million in unpaid taxes, penalties, and interest. As a reward for disclosing the fraud, the whistleblower received a $4.5 award under the IRS Whistleblower Program. This is the first ever award issued by the IRS under the program, which was established in December 2006.
According to the terms of the program, if a whistleblower provides information that results in the IRS recovering more than $2 million in taxes, penalties, and interest, then the IRS is required to pay the whistleblower between 15-30% of what is ultimately recovered. Although this was the first such award issued by the IRS, the Whistleblower Office currently has many cases under investigation.