Double Taxation: A Take On All Things Taxes

Like me, Richard Cohen is a CPA who hails from the Garden State. Unlike me, Richard Cohen just lost millions of dollars at the hands of an apathetic IRS.

Cohen’s wife served as an executrix for an estate which held uncashed dividend checks from a public corporation. Due to some shenanigans, Cohen started to suspect that the corporation was retaining the proceeds from these uncashed dividend checks without including the amounts in taxable income.

In pursuit of hard evidence, Cohen requested information from the State comptroller under the Freedom of Information Law, and also reviewed allegations in pleadings from a civil case against the corporation. Cohen’s findings only buoyed his belief that the corporation was up to no good; with the amount of improperly retained unclaimed assets possibly reaching into the hundreds of millions.

At that point, Cohen filed a whistleblower claim with the IRS on Form 211, Application for Award for Original Information. As you may or may not know, Section 7623 provides that an individual who provides information that leads the IRS to pursue an administrative or judicial action against a taxpayer is entitled to receive an award equal to a percentage of the tax dollars collected by the IRS. [Ed note: pick the right taxpayer, and you can get paid $100 million, even if you're a convicted criminal].

Despite the fact that Cohen felt the IRS had a strong case against the corporation, a mere two weeks after he filed his application he was notified by the IRS that no action was commenced and no tax dollars recovered from the corporation; thus, Cohen was not entitled to an award.

Understandably frustrated, Cohen sued the IRS, presenting the Tax Court with an issue of first impression: Could the court force the IRS to pursue a case against the corporation, so that Cohen would be eligible for a future whistleblower award?

Interpreting the statute literally, the Tax Court held against Cohen and declined to compel the IRS to reopen the whistleblower case. In reaching its decision, the court noted that Section 7623 requires a condition precedent to the issuance of a whistleblower award: the IRS must first commence an administrative or judicial action against the accused taxpayer, and tax dollars must ultimately be collected.

In this case, because the IRS did not see fit to pursue the corporation for its alleged unclaimed assets, no award could be given. Equally as important, the Tax Court established a precedent for future whistleblower decision by concluding that it lacked the authority to direct the IRS to pursue a case; rather, it’s jurisdiction was limited to determining whether an award should be given after a case has been pursued and tax revenue collected.