The Ferraro Law Firm has announced that a new tax whistleblower submission of more than $4.4 billion has been filed with the IRS Whistleblower Office. This brings the total of whistleblower claims filed by The Ferraro Law Firm to more than $10 billion.
According to The Ferraro Law Firm, in this most recent submission, a tax whistleblower has come forward alleging that a Fortune 500 company has underpaid its US tax liability by more than $4.4 billion, over a short period of time, by engaging in abusive tax transactions. “In our experience, $4.4 billion is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to corporate tax underpayments,” said Tax Partner Scott Knott. “Given staffing levels at the IRS, many companies take dozens of aggressive positions figuring the IRS cannot find them all. For many companies, the tax department is one of the most profitable business units,” said Tax Partner Greg Lynam. “This particular multi-national company started with smaller tax plays and became emboldened after it continually got away with it. After today, that will change,” said Knott.
The IRS established the Whistleblower Office in 2007 to collect information about tax cheats and must, by law, pay a reward of up to 30% of the amount collected to the tax whistleblower.
It is interesting to note the blog on the Ferraro Law Firm. As a former IRS attorney that handles only tax whistleblower cases, I believe that confidentiality is of the utmost importance. In fact, our firm will guarantee the confidentiality of a tax whistleblower or forfeit our fee. Therefore, we will not disclose the number of tax whistleblower cases we handle, the dollar amount, or any other information including the background of the taxpayer so as to protect our clients and the tax whistleblower process. Yes, we recognize that the Ferraro firm is successfully promoting itself through these numerous press releases. We also note that the numbers and facts stated within a press release cannot be verified by an independent source and we note that most attorneys engaged in this area of the law are not promoting themselves by divulging potentially confidential information.
Therefore, we, as attorneys, are certainly disappointed that our fellow members of the bar would promote themselves to what we perceive is to the detriment of their clients.
The new explanation to Tax Court Rule 340 provides authority for the court to allow a petitioner to proceed anonymously and to seal the record when appropriate in whistleblower actions.
The suit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages, is based on two claims. One is New Jersey’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act, which prohibits companies from retaliating against workers who act as whistle-blowers, including those who object to practices that could jeopardize the public health or safety.