IRS Whistleblower Denial Requires Redo, Appeals Court Says (1)

A whistleblower who reported almost a decade of tax violations to the IRS can get another shot at an award after the DC Circuit Friday found the original denial was arbitrary and capricious.

The IRS relied on an unsupported rationale that Mary Trongone’s whistleblower application couldn’t have helped with the agency’s investigation because it was tainted, Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson said for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Henderson reversed a US Tax Court ruling that denied Trongone’s request to supplement the record or allow discovery and had granted summary judgment to the IRS.

Trongone’s ...