Business: Bonuses to Tattlers

The U. S. Bureau of Internal Revenue last week announced that during the past fiscal year it paid $75,641.18 in 77 bonuses to people who tattled on tax evaders. Authorized by law to pay informers up to 10% of the amount recovered, the Revenue Bureau makes it relatively easy for a would-be tattler. He merely gets in touch with Internal Revenue field agents or directly with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue in Washington, reports that someone has skimped in his tax report. If the evidence seems reasonable, field agents inspect questionable records, interview the suspected offender, notify the proper tax division (income, estate, gift, etc.). When a suspect is found guilty and forced to pay up, the informer fills out a neatly printed claim blank and passes it on for certification by a tax collector, the U. S. District Attorney, the Revenue Commissioner. His reward, which varies with the value of his information and the amount of help he gives in recovering the taxes, averages 2½% of the sum recovered.

Last year 152 informers’ claims were cleared. The 77 which were allowed represented recovery by the Government of $3,029,059 in withheld taxes. Most informers were dismissed bookkeepers, disgruntled former partners, divorced wives who knew too much about their former husbands. In one case, however, it was a loving wife who tipped off the Bureau on her husband’s dodge, explaining: “I wanted to keep him from going to jail.” For her errand of devotion she scorned reward.