The Internal Revenue Service introduced a new
The IRS said it's also made improvements to enhance how referrals are used to stop illegal activity.
"Improvements to the IRS fraud reporting system make reporting suspected wrongdoing easier and simpler and will address historic challenges that had prevented the IRS from making maximum use of the referrals it receives," said IRS CEO Frank Bisignano in a statement Thursday. "By reporting suspected tax fraud or scams, taxpayers play an important role in uncovering fraud and supporting the integrity of the nation's tax system."
The new web page consolidates a number of fraud-reporting options into a single, central location where taxpayers can report suspicious activity. The web page can be accessed by selecting the new "Report Fraud" button on the
The IRS is planning further improvements in its fraud reporting process, and said the new web page is only an initial improvement. Over the long term, it intends to streamline fraud reporting by reducing forms, automating processes, and using modern case management software. The changes will address longstanding challenges it has faced in using referrals. The IRS believes that creating fewer work streams, simplifying how taxpayers submit referrals, and making processing of claims will improve how the agency uses referrals in years to come.
Fraud is all around us
Earlier this week, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners held an online ACFE Government Anti-Fraud Summit in which it discussed the rise in fraud and how the government is combating it, as well as fraud within the government itself.
The
"When we look at losses by the level of government, at the national level, the median loss in a fraud scheme was $210,000, but the average is more than $3 million," he added. "At the state level, the median was $92,000 but the average is more than $950,000 and at the local level, the median was $148,000, and the average was more than $2 million. These are enormous risks."
Warren interviewed U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District Court of New York, who has presided over a number of prominent financial crime and fraud cases, including ones involving WorldCom, Bernard Madoff and Raj Rajaratnam. Warren asked Rakoff for his perspective on how financial crime and criminal enforcement have evolved over his 30-year career on the federal bench.
"In some important respects, I'm sorry to say I think we're worse off," said Rakoff. "If you go back 30 years, this was the period when you were having very major prosecutions involving Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and so forth, and those were not just directed at companies. They were directed at high-level individuals who were found to have either, in some cases, planned the frauds, and in other cases, knowingly acquiesced in them. Starting about 25 years ago or so, there was a shift, which I'm disappointed to say has continued largely in the present, of increasingly not going after high-level individuals."
He noted that it's easier to pursue companies and bring in a financial settlement with publicity about billions of dollars paid in fines as opposed to prosecuting the individuals who committed the fraud.
"The people who are most responsible from both a moral and operational sense for having brought about the fraud have largely escaped prosecution in recent decades," said Rakoff. "I don't think that's a healthy development. Some of this waxes and wanes with the administration, of course, but I think in the longer run, what has caused this change is a question of resources. It's so much easier to just go after the company and so much harder to go after the high-level individuals. But I think it's unfortunate that we haven't done that."
