Senator Chuck Grassley is a member of the Senate Finance Committee. In a May 2012 letter, he prods Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to do a much better job of timely compensating IRS whistleblowers for their information. See this article for more information about the IRS whistleblower program and the program’s historical results.
The Grassley letter includes:
It has been several months since I last wrote to Commissioner Shulman regarding the implementation of the whistleblower program at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). While I was encouraged by the IRS’s plodding but steady progress, I am now writing to convey my extreme disappointment in the management of the program. …
The IRS does not have a problem attracting whistleblowers. The IRS’s current problem is processing and compensation whistleblowers in a timely manner.
Since last writing to Commission Schulman, I have received even more correspondence from whistleblowers whose claims are not progressing at the IRS. Such correspondence, along with recent cased filed in the Tax Court and corresponding press coverage, indicate that my worst fears are coming true. The lack of progress is demoralizing whistleblowers so that I am now concerned that whistleblowers will stop coming forward. “
An effective whistleblower program could significantly assist the enormous “tax gap” (unreported income) that the U.S. faces. The Administration would be well served by placing attention in this area.
