IRS Whistleblower Program: Billions Collected, but Timeliness and Communication Concerns May Discourage Whistleblowers (GAO-16-20)

GAO-16-20, IRS Whistleblower Program: Billions Collected, but Timeliness and Communication Concerns May Discourage Whistleblowers (Oct 2015, 65 pp.): highlights table (awards, proceeds, amounts FY2011-June 2015); background, staffing (Figure 1 stacked bars by unit FY2007-2015; 61 staff Sept 2015), workload (over 10,000 claims a year; 30,152 open; Figure 2 open/closed claims by year of receipt - no printed values); claim process and 90-day targets (67% met); audit and payment times for the 17 paid 7623(b) claims; Table 1 closures by reason FY2013-Aug 2015; backlogs (11,000; 5,000; 8,700 vs 2,100 a quarter; 4,200 7623(a) claims; 2,500 letters) and staffing (FTE, detailees, ARC hires); Table 2 SME referrals by division; Table 3 awards and proceeds; award percentages (majority at 22%), almost 17% of proceeds paid; Table 4 award factors; award errors (~$100,000); annual-report delays; section 6103; fact sheets (5-7 years); status-letter pilot; whistleblower protections; recommendations; Appendix II Table 5 closures by decision maker; Appendix III status of 12,439 open 7623(b) claims; IRS comments (images, text letter). Tax gap figures out of scope. Already in the data: highlights table (9 rows), Table 1 category rows by year, Table 2 total referred, the award-error event. Added: Table 1 sub-reasons and totals, Table 2 by division, Table 5 (all cells except "-"), Appendix III (all cells), about 35 text figures, 6 rules, 3 events. Checks: Table 1, Table 2, Table 5 and Appendix III all add up (two-figure rows in Table 1 placed in FY2015 by the column sums).