Lee Martin, Director IRS Whistleblower Office: Guest Speaker at TWLF's Attorneys Conference Call

On May 11, 2016, the Tax Whistleblower Law Firm held its bi-monthly conference call between tax whistleblower attorneys.  During this conference call, Lee Martin, the Director of the IRS Whistleblower Office, along with his representative from the IRS Chief Counsel, were in attendance and answered questions from the tax whistleblower attorneys as presented by Tom Pliske.

Some highlights of Director Martin’s responses are as follows:

• Director Martin views his role is to pay awards and make the whistleblower program successful.
• Director Martin stated that he was available to review a whistleblower case if a whistleblower or attorney was not satisfied with the outcome of the IRS’ determination. In fact, he encouraged whistleblowers and their representatives to contact him to review their case if there is a disagreement between the whistleblower and their representative and the IRS determination.
• Director Martin anticipated paying more awards in fiscal year 2016.
• Director Martin mentioned that his office is working with the IRS Congressional liaison to prepare legislation that would: a) create legal protections for whistleblowers and b) would increase protections for taxpayers against whistleblowers using the taxpayers’ information against them.
• Director Martin also stated that while a point system for differentiating whistleblower cases that are vetted by attorneys may sound like a good idea, pragmatically speaking he does not see that it is currently a possibility.  He stated that even though cases are vetted by attorneys, the cases still end up with the Whistleblower Office; and his job is to process all cases regardless if the claims have been vetted by an attorney.
• Director Martin stated that the de-briefing timelines and determination letter processing timelines in former Deputy Commissioner Miller’s and Deputy Commissioner Dalrymple’s guidelines are targets but are not set in stone.
• Director Martin commented that he and the IRS whistleblower program have the full support of Commissioner Koskinen.  He also stated that there were no advantages to having the IRS whistleblower program as an independent from IRS.  Director Martin also clarified that he maintains independent autonomy over whistleblower office and does not report to a board within the IRS to make decisions or to conduct and administrative appeal.
• Director Martin stated that the Informant Claims Examination (“ICE”) unit is moving back to SBSE to be more transparent.  He also stated that the rationale for the movement was it allowed the IRS to have the ability to better utilize analysts.  He then stated that this would apply to all whistleblower cases (7623(a) and 7623(b)).
• With respect to cases that have been open for 10+ years, Director Martin stated that there may be a valid reason why the cases remained open.  He reiterated that it does not hurt the process for whistleblowers and/or their counsel to inquire with the assigned analyst.  He further stated that the IRS whistleblower office is working on getting through every case, and to pay more awards.  He then stated that because he is trying to get more awards paid, the numbers of cases and awards paid are increasing.
• Finally, with respect to Title 18 and Title 31 penalties and whether they are collected proceeds, Director Martin stated that these penalties are not subject to an award.  He stated that the IRS whistleblower office has no policy as to these penalties, and that he would defer to Congress to determine if they should be included in the term "collected proceeds".

If you are a tax whistleblower attorney and are interested in participating in the conference calls, contact our firm to have us inform you of the next call and how to participate. 

Alternatively, if you have specific and credible information (including documents) of a taxpayer’s tax violations/liabilities, contact us to have us review your claim for an award from the IRS.  As a reminder, the IRS pays 15-30% of the tax, penalties, interest and other amounts collected from non-conforming taxpayers to whistleblowers that provide specific and credible information to the IRS.