IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act

H.R. 7959 . 119th Congress . Taxation

Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

We do not publish a plain-language question for this bill yet. The full text and the official summary are below.

Source: Congress.gov

IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act This bill modifies provisions of the Internal Revenue Code relating to whistleblower awards and protections. Specifically, the bill revises the standard for review of whistleblower awards in the Tax Court to require a de novo review (rather than the current abuse of discretion review) based on the administrative record established at the time of the whistleblower award determination and any new or previously unavailable evidence, allows whistleblowers anonymity in proceedings before the Tax Court (unless a societal interest in disclosing a whistleblower's identity outweighs potential harm to the whistleblower), modifies the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblower report to require inclusion of a list and description of up to 10 of the top tax avoidance schemes disclosed by whistleblowers, and requires payment of interest on mandatory whistleblower awards if the IRS fails to provide timely notice to a whistleblower of an award recommendation. The bill also allows payments of the attorney fees of whistleblowers to be deducted when calculating adjusted gross income for tax purposes regardless of whether the whistleblower award was paid through the mandatory or the discretionary whistleblower award program. (Under current law, the deduction is limited to attorney fees paid in connection with mandatory awards.)

Source: Congress.gov

This bill is too thin to summarize responsibly yet. The full text and the official summary are below.

Source: Congress.gov

The record does not place this bill in a committee yet. Committee unknown is itself a state, not a fabricated value.

Source: Congress.gov

Source: Roll-call records, Congress.gov

Key cosponsors

Source: Congress.gov

Sources