IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act

What this does

This bill rewrites five parts of the IRS whistleblower program in the tax code. It sets the standard for Tax Court review of award decisions: the review is de novo, based on the administrative record plus any newly discovered or previously unavailable evidence. It lets a whistleblower proceed anonymously before the Tax Court unless the court finds a societal interest in disclosure that outweighs the harm to the whistleblower. It requires the IRS annual whistleblower report to list and describe up to 10 top tax avoidance schemes disclosed by whistleblowers each year. It requires the IRS to pay interest on an award, at the tax overpayment rate, when the agency fails to issue a preliminary award recommendation within 12 months after the proceeds are collected and the refund period has closed. It broadens the above-the-line deduction for attorney's fees to cover awards under section 7623 generally, not only awards under section 7623(b).