Report Tax Cheats

Last edited 69 days ago by Ted Broomfield

Summary: This blog article is aimed at people who want to report tax cheats to the IRS or the California Department of Revenue Franchise Tax Board. This blog explains the minimum contents and form of a successful whistleblower complaint and provides the contact information. The blog also explains that the reward for those who request it properly of the IRS and the recovery exceeds $2 million is between 15% and 30% of the recovered tax, but that there is no reward for reporting to the FTB.

DETAILS

Under Federal Law at 26 United States Code section

7623⁠

(a)(6)] a person may be able to obtain a reward of 15% to 30% of the tax collected by reporting underpayment by a third person to the IRS. It would be best practice to report, or blow the whistle, on the tax underpayment on both the (i) “Information Referral” Form

3949-A⁠

and (ii) request the reward on IRS Form 211.

The criteria for earning the reward are:

and do so anonymously, without revealing your name. The link to download an “Information Referral” Form

3949-A⁠

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f3949a.pdf⁠

. You can send the form to the IRS

According to the IRS brochure for requesting a claim, you can only submit the request for reward Internal Revenue Service Whistleblower Office - ICE 1973 N. Rulon White Blvd. M/S 4110 Ogden, UT 84404. Other criteria include the requestor must be a person, a natural human being, the requestor must sign the request under penalty of perjury, all the documents must be submitted with the request.

You can obtain more information at the following websites.

⁠

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5232⁠

⁠

https://www.irs.gov/compliance/whistleblower-office⁠

⁠

It is not clear whether you also need to file an “Information Referral” Form

3949-A⁠

to claim the reward, but, it might be a best practice to submit both, simultaneously.

Note, you can file a “Information Referral” Form

3949-A⁠

anonymously, without revealing your name, but, if you intend to request a reward, you should sign your name. The link to download an “Information Referral” Form

3949-A⁠

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f3949a.pdf⁠

If you want to sent the “Information Referral,” online you can use the following link:

https://apps.irs.gov/app/digital-mailroom/referrals/⁠

If you want to complete the form and mail it, the mailing address is Internal Revenue Service PO Box 3801 Ogden, UT 84409.

You cannot receive updates on your report, because the Federal Law at 26 United States Code section

6103⁠

requires that third party tax information be kept confidential.

If you are interested in reporting a tax matter to the California tax authority, the California Franchise Tax Board (”FTB”), you can, but, the FTB does not offer a reward.

The California Franchise Tax Board, their website for tax fraud lists several contact methods: (i) online at

https://webapp.ftb.ca.gov/informantdb/⁠

; (ii) via telephone at (800) 540-3453; (iii) via fax at (916) 843-2060; or via mail at Franchise Tax Board, PO Box 1565, Rancho Cordova CA 95741-1565.

As a practical matter, obtaining rewards can be difficult and, even though there are laws to prevent retaliation by an employer against a reporting employee, retaliation is not uncommon.

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