Plan Would Pay Tax Whistleblowers

[GreenPartyVoter]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Suspect your company's cheating the IRS out of millions in taxes? Pass along the inside information to the Internal Revenue Service and you stand to collect up to 30 percent of taxes and penalties recovered under whistle-blower legislation aimed at snaring high-dollar tax cheats.

The proposed IRS Whistleblower Office is designed to give tax agents an inside advantage when fighting complicated, often invisible tax shelters developed for and used by wealthy taxpayers and corporations.

It would go after individuals and corporations with more than $200,000 in income who use shelters that hide $20,000 or more.

Informants who blow the whistle on tax evasion stand to win 15 percent to 30 percent of the recovered taxes and penalties if they contribute substantially to the case. Those who make less substantial contributions can win up to 10 percent of recovered money.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040619/D839OH9O0.html

[7th_Sephiroth]

1. this is how the repubs work

tho tax evasion sucks, the taxes suck, and this has just been created to create more of a corporite air of distrust throughout the country

[bryant69]

2. Corporate air of distrust?

Companys don't have anything to fear if they pay their fair share of the tax burden do they? It's only anti-American companies who don't believe in supporting this country that have anything to fear.

Although it might be a good idea to punish those who turn in false tips (people hoping to cash out so to speak).

Bryant
check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[TahitiNut]

3. Whistleblowers need all the protections and compensations they can get.

A whistleblower can be almost guaranteed to be black-balled in finding employment. They run the strong chance of having their phone tapped and their financial lives ruined. (Corporate "security" people often operate outside the law. Believe it. Think about the mercs in Iraq.)

I'm not at all in favor of Big Brother government, but the degree of waste, fraud, and abuse in companies that're federal contractors, and the degree of tax cheating in business is unbelievable. I've known of many owner-operated businesses where the owner/operator puts all kinds of personal and family expenses on the company - expenses the company uses to reduce profits (and thereby taxes) and which aren't counted as income for the owner/operator. Leased vehicles, gasoline, season tickets, and other "perquisites" are common. It's appalling.