Tax whistleblowing took center-stage at the American Bar Association Section of Taxation meeting in Denver last Friday.  I had the pleasure of participating in a round table discussion with fellow panelists, Holly Styles, Senior Counsel in the IRS Office of Associate Chief Counsel, and the Director of the IRS Whistleblower Office, Stephen Whitlock.  Among the topics that our panel discussed were the addition of the 31 new employees to the IRS Whistleblower Office and the implications of the final whistleblower regulations that were released on August 7th. 

Mr. Whitlock expressed that the addition of the new employees in the Whistleblower Office will help to pick up the pace of award payouts, echoing the comments made by IRS Commissioner John Koskinen last week.  Even more exciting for whistleblowers is that Mr. Whitlock stated that award payouts in fiscal year 2015 (beginning October 1, 2014) will be significantly larger than they were in fiscal year 2014.  Between the final regulations, the comments made by IRS Commissioner Koskinen, and the statements made by Director Whitlock, it has been a great couple months of news for tax whistleblowers. 

Lynam Knott