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30 pieces of silver or 30 percent of the gross

October 05, 2009

The new IRS program that pays whisleblowers rewards up to 30 percent of additional taxes collected is getting lots of new business, according to the IRS.

The TaxGrrrl ponders whether that's a good thing. Senator Grassley thinks so. Peter Pappas also has some thoughts.

The program hugely increases the risks to clients and firms of engaging in evasion. A lot of the tax shelter cases involved tens of millions in taxes at the individual level, and even more when corporations were involved. A low-level staff accountant who sniffs out a bad deal might find 30 percent of that adequate compensation for giving up a dream of CPA glory.

While there is always something creepy about the IRS being able to horn in on confidential client-professional relationships, the professionals haven't exactly been models of virtue during the past decade's tax shelter debacles.