Comments on: Bradley Birkenfeld’s $104 million bounty

By: a_random_guy

a_random_guy — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:37:51 +0000

Really? Read the article a bit more carefully:

While “an award of $104 million is obviously a great deal of money,” Grassley said, “billions of dollars in taxes owed will be collected that otherwise would not have been paid as a result of the whistleblower information.”

The program hasn’t met expectations, IRS officials said in interviews earlier this year.

In other words, those billions of dollars aren’t materializing, probably because they don’t really exist. In 2011, the IRS whistleblower office collected a whopping $48 million in taxes from all sources combined. The amount recovered will be even less if one is honest and deducts the costs of huge bureaucracies involved here. Heck, it might even be net loss.

The award of $104 million is just bizarre.

By: Douglas

Douglas — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 01:51:58 +0000

So what’s your real gripe? Sounds like those who like to cheat on their taxes (thereby committing crime) feel compelled to take a swipe at the whistleblower who exposed 19,000 tax cheats/frauds/felons.

The reward was large. So what? The recovery by the government due to the whistleblower’s efforts was enormous, over $5 Billion.

By: rxc

rxc — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 22:37:38 +0000

This has also made it very difficult for expats who are living legally outside the US, and who report all of their income and savings to the IRS, to do business in those countries, because more and more foreign banks do not want to do business with US citizens. The hassle and threat of prosecution by the US govt is too much. They are telling US citizens to go away. In some countries, this is essentially the same as a deportation order, because it is extremely difficult to live in a foreign country without a bank account.

By: Property of the State

Property of the State — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 21:06:12 +0000

Reuven,

Work harder. Millions on welfare are depending on you.

By: Reuven

Reuven — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 17:12:05 +0000

It’s become tough for people who want to keep their money out of reach of the U.S. legal system but NOT out of the tax system. I don’t mind having the IRS know that I have some money in another country; I’m not trying to hide any income. But I’d like to have it out of their reach in case I ever decide to expatriate myself and they feel they have a right to it.