Former IRS employee outs whistleblower

The arrest last week of former IRS employee Dennis Lerner stands out for a particular reason to Taxfraudblog.com: The government said he had revealed the identity of an IRS whistleblower.

Such a breach of whistleblower confidentiality by a government employee is unprecedented.  As Special Agent Robert O’Malley of the Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) said, “Any allegation of corruption, self-dealing, or inappropriate disclosure of confidential information is a potential violation of the public trust and could erode the public’s confidence in the American system of tax administration.”

Lerner was charged with breaching conflict of interest laws and illegally divulging privileged IRS information. 

He worked as an international examiner for the New York IRS office from 2010 to 2011, during which time he headed the audit of an international bank that was launched on the basis of whistleblower information regarding nearly $1 billion in unreported income.  Lerner left the IRS in the fall of 2011 and went to work for the same bank he had audited while at the IRS, which the New York Times reported was German Commerzbank.

While working for the bank, Lerner continued to unethically seek out information regarding the IRS investigation, and revealed the identity of the whistleblower to his new employer, violating IRS whistleblower confidentiality, according to the government.  

For more information on whistleblower protection and IRS whistleblower rules, see here. 

I.R.S. statements cast pall over BAB market

Concerns have risen following a series of statements from the I.R.S. suggesting that federal interest-rate subsidies could be lost or diminished on more than $100 billion worth of Build America Bonds, or BABs, that certain states and cities have already sold.

Although BABs have been extremely popular in the municipal bond market since their introduction in April 2009, concerns over I.R.S. audits and subsequent reductions of federal subsidies are expected to cause considerable concern over the continued issuance of such bonds.

Issuers of BABs will likely consider the risk to their credit that the uncertainty of federal subsidies carries. The I.R.S., which at one point claimed would audit up to half of all issued bonds, is currently in a research phase, preparing to determine the extent of future audits.

IRS curtails audits of tax-haven users

Congressional investigators have found that the three-year limitation on conducting a tax audit is causing the IRS to curtail prematurely audits of people who use tax havens, reports the New York Times (a story carried by the International Herald Tribune on May 3). In some cases, the time limit dissuades agents from even opening an audit because it can't be finished on time.

In a report released May 3, the Government Accountability Office found that I.R.S. agents are so hobbled by “dilatory tactics” by offshore taxpayers and other problems that it takes almost two and a half years to complete a typical audit.

The IRS reporter that almost $300 billion in investment and business income was moved out of the U.S. in 2003. Analysts with the Joint Committee on Taxation have estimated that the annual outflow has shot to more than $400 billion since then.

Underreporting income also is a problem, costing the government about $300 billion a year. Democratic lawmakers say the government could be losing tens of billions of dollars a year from offshore tax evasion.

The GAO found that offshore audits routinely become bogged down by stalling tactics by taxpayers, difficulties in getting financial information from foreign institutions and the technical complexity of many offshore transactions.

Audits can be pursued for more than three years, but agents have to meet tough requirements to do so. The Times said that IRS agents' findings can be dismissed and the agents reprimanded if the unpaid taxes turn out to be smaller than expected.