Sen. Chuck Grassley has received a response from IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to questions for the record after the February hearing on the agency's budget, including a response on the IRS whistleblower office. Grassley authored the provisions that beefed up the IRS' whistleblower office and has monitored their implementation. Grassley made the following comment on a Tax Court opinion this week that found the IRS is not legally justified in denying a whistleblower award simply because the whistleblower brought useful information directly to the IRS' operating division prior to filling out paperwork requesting an award with the whistleblower office. Grassley made the following comment on the ruling.
"The law was intended to direct whistleblowers and the IRS to work together to catch tax cheats. Bureaucratic barriers don't get the job done. The IRS should welcome whistleblowers with a red carpet instead of putting up arbitrary legal hurdles at every turn."
The answers from Koskinen to Grassley are available here. The Tax Court opinion is available here.
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