Qui Tam

Offshore Tax Violations: Sen. Grassley Calls For Accounting of Use of UBS Information Provided by Tax Whistleblower

By Finch McCranie, Esq.

Offshore tax evasion is a great priority for the IRS, and thus also the IRS Whistleblower Program.

Today, the leading advocate for robust whistleblower laws has called for the Treasury Department and the IRS to account for their use of information provided by the "UBS whistleblower," Bradley Birkenfeld.

Sen. Chuck Grassley issued a press release today summarizing his letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman. Grassley commented on Swiss legislators' move today to "unravel a U.S.-Swiss treaty that would allow for the disclosure of more client information to allow U.S. officials to review cases for potential enforcement of U.S. tax laws."

"The action by Swiss legislators today to try to unravel an international treaty emphasizes the need for U.S. authorities to exhaust the information they have on U.S. taxpayers who use offshore accounts to evade taxes,? Grassley said. ?Honest taxpayers deserve to know what's happened with what could be very valuable leads, and if it's nothing, they deserve to know why. It's a matter of tax fairness and law enforcement. And the IRS shouldn't wait for international agreements to fall into place when tax evaders can be identified through other appropriate tools.?

Grassley did not advocate for the UBS whistleblower's release from federal prison, however, but focused on the government's use of the information he provided. (See prior discussions of the UBS whistleblower's case here).

Grassley, more than anyone, is responsible for passage of the December 2006 legislation that created the first meaningful IRS Whistleblower Program. The promising new IRS Whistleblower Program was inspired by the great successes of the nation's primary whistleblower statute for exposing fraud, the False Claims Act.

Sen. Grassley's announcement and letter today are reprinted below:

Full post as published by Whistleblower Lawyer Blog on June 08, 2010 (boomark / email).