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GAO Report Finds Excluding FBAR Violations from Award Calculations “Negatively Affected Whistleblowers’ Willingness to Bring Information to IRS”

The GAO found that excluding FBAR violations from whistleblower award calculations discouraged attorneys from taking on tax evasion cases and deterred potential informants from reporting offshore account violations.

by MJW

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In a report issued October 29, 2018, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviewed the impact of the former exclusion for FBAR and other non-Title 26 collections from IRS whistleblower awards. The GAO found that whistleblower attorneys would limit the number of IRS whistleblowers alleging FBAR noncompliance they were willing to take on as clients when such collections were excluded from award determinations. In addition, IRS whistleblower attorneys reported that the exclusion of criminal fines from collected proceeds was a potential reason for IRS whistleblowers not coming forward. This is significant because the “estimated value of undisclosed offshore accounts may be in the tens of billions of dollars.”  Continue reading.

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