Whistleblower Denied Award for Publicly Available Tax Tip!

Taxpayers who give the IRS Whistleblower Office (WBO) credible, specific tips about unpaid taxes may qualify for cash awards. But certain conditions must be met. The IRS must act on the tip and the WBO must collect proceeds from that action. In one new case, a tipster alleged transfer pricing violations by a multinational corporation. However, the IRS had already identified the issues years earlier and had begun investigating before receiving the tip. The tipster’s information was largely drawn from public sources and offered no unique knowledge or technical analysis. The U.S. Tax Court denied the claim, ruling that the tip didn’t “substantially contribute” to the results. (TC Memo 2025-86)