Recent Tax Court Decision Considered a Win for Whistleblowers

4514 Cole Ave, #600 | Dallas, Texas 75205

Call Kardell Law Group 214-306-8045

A tax court recently ruled that giving information to federal agencies and a division of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) before filing an Application for Award for Original Information (also known as Form 211) does not make a whistleblower ineligible to receive an award.

There is a whistleblower program in place that provides compensation to people if the IRS makes use of any information provided by the whistleblower to collect money from a delinquent taxpayer. There are two types of such awards. The first includes awards provided if taxes, interest, penalties and other amounts collected are less than $2 million, and these are given out on a discretionary basis. The second involves recovery amounts of more than $2 million, and whistleblowers in these cases may receive anywhere between 15 and 30 percent of the total amount of money collected in the action.

In this particular case, the petitioner had actually been arrested for being involved in criminal conspiracy, and to lessen the punishments he faced, he agreed to work with the IRS, FBI and other federal agencies. While he was in custody, he gave officials information on a large federal tax evasion scheme aided by a foreign business. The targeted business was forced to pay $74 million to the United States government as a result of the investigation.

Initially, the federal government did not believe the petitioners who assisted the government in these cases were eligible to receive whistleblower awards. However, the tax court ruled otherwise, meaning that the petitioner in this particular case was eligible to receive 15 to 30 percent of the $74 million amount.

To learn more about how you may file a whistleblower complaint, contact Steve Kardell at Whistleblower Law for Managers.

By Admin | Published July 20, 2015 | Posted in Whistleblower Litigation | Tagged criminal conspiracy, federal tax evasion, file a whistleblower complaint, whistleblower program

Cancel reply

Awards & Honors

Our Office

Dallas Office
4514 Cole Ave
#600
Dallas, Texas 75205
Phone: 214-306-8045
Fax: 469-729-9926

Testimonials

"Steve Kardell was terrific in representing me in some very adversarial discussions with Citigroup and also later represented me in my testimony before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission." -Richard Bowen, Citigroup Whistleblower
"Incredible knowledge of employee related concerns and equally brilliant knowledge of health care regulations, standards of practice. I would recommend this firm to anyone." -V.B.
"Reaching out to Steve Kardell was the best decision I made. His ability to provide immediate insight and direction was very powerful, and a huge relief during a very stressful time period. For anyone struggling with a whistleblower situation, I would highly recommend at least speaking with Steve. After a 10 minute call with him, I had a better understanding of what I was dealing with. Even better, he gave me some immediate hope. In the end Steve did a better job than I thought was possible. Steve was able to get in contact with people in my organization, that I didn’t have access to. Because of his years of experience, he already has contacts in many organizations in Dallas. The entire situation was handled peacefully. I was impressed by his ability to “keep the peace”–rather than creating a battle with the organization. The reason I didn’t reach out to a lawyer initially, was because I thought it would mean an immediate end to any hope of a positive relationship with the company. Steve was able to address my concerns, and in the end I was able to continue to work for them." -KS
"Never thought my career would end like it did after 30 years of service. I was part of the first round of the so called reduction of force. I asked myself how can I be part of this with 30 years of seniority. How did they pick these 90 plus employees? Now, the culture of this organization made you question every decision they made. It wasn’t what you knew it’s was a culture of who you know. Nonetheless, I did not accept their severance package. I immediately starting looking for an attorney who would take on my case. After the initial call to Steve I had hope again. He was open and honest about everything and reassured me he would do his best for me, and he did. I had an awesome outcome. Thanks Steve you’re the best." -S.S.