Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Five years ago, Joseph Insinga blew the whistle on his employer, telling the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that it was helping numerous companies avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes.
Insinga figured he deserved a reward for his actions, given a federal statute that allows whistleblowers to receive from 15% to 30% of any taxes or penalties the IRS recovers.
To date, Insinga has received nothing from the IRS, not even notification as to whether he will receive an award, prompting him to sue the agency.
The former executive was employed by Rabobank Group, a Dutch bank that helped seven companies avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, according to Insinga.
In FY 2010, whistleblowers helped the IRS collect $464.4 million, yet it paid out only $18.7 million (4%) to the whistleblowers. An IRS spokesman told The Washington Post that the awards for FY 2011 were too small to even report.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
Whistleblower Joseph Insinga Suing IRS For Not Being Paid A Reward (by Lisa Rein, Washington Post)
Whistleblower Sues IRS for Not Paying Reward (by Michael Cohn, Accounting Today) 
