Legal Question in Tax Law in Illinois

Re: Reporting Tax Evasion

Informers often furnish leads to the government concerning tax evaders. IRS is authorized to pay informers. You report your information by calling the IRS at your local district office, and tell whomever answers that you wish to report a violation of the tax law that you expect will result in recovery of taxes.

The amount of the reward for information leading to the detection of tax law violators is determined by the district director, but total reward will not be more than $100,000.

An informant may file a claim for the reward by notifying the office or person to whom he reported the information that he is claiming the reward and by filing Form 211, signing it with his true name. Anyone may file a claim for the reward unless he was employed by the Treasury Department when he received or provided the information or is a present or former federal employee, who received the information in the course of his official duties.

Our comments are based on the question you asked, and your question is being treated by us as a hypothetical. Accordingly, our comments could be substantially and materially different were we advised of all of the relevant facts and circumstances. Our comments are by necessity general in nature, and should not be relied upon in taking or forgoing action in your circumstances without retaining an attorney. In order to fully explore your legal matter, you should meet with us or another attorney and bring to any such meeting all relevant documents and correspondence, and any other relevant facts.

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As you are aware, in Illinois there are various deadlines for filing a complaint, filing an answer to a complaint, or taking other action in order to preserve your legal rights, and avoid a complete loss of those rights. You should retain counsel immediately in order to be fully advised of your rights, and to be fully informed of the applicable time period within which those rights must be asserted. If you were to delay in doing so, it might result in your potential cause of action being forever barred.

Re: Reporting Tax Evasion

You can report suspected evasion to your local IRS office. However, be aware that lots of bogus reports are made for reasons of personal animosity, so they tend not to take seriously a mere "suspicion" without any corroborative evidence. Also, you should understand that rewards for reporting tax evasion are dependent upon the IRS successfully pursuing a tax cheat AND collecting the tax owed, and even then are discretionary.

Best wishes,

LDWG