You really could have seen this coming after Judge Goeke denied his discovery request last September. So, no surprise, there’s no whistleblower award for 10084-16W, 2021 T. C. Memo. 73, filed 6/9/21. For the discovery joust, see my blogpost “Raise High the Beam,” 9/29/20.

OK, so the SEC filing is a broken reed. LBI’s SME says Blower84’s info didn’t lead to the big grab IRS got from target (not the department store, the alleged bad dudes). Judge Goeke walks us through the giant slalom that Blower84’s info traveled, but at the end, all Blower84 had was the SEC 10-K that said target paid $170 million to “taxing authorities.”

Judge Goeke: ” As we stated in our order denying petitioner’s motion to compel, petitioner’s allegations relating to the 2010 settlement are speculative and based on a highly improbable timeline under which respondent would have needed to use the information received in June 2010 to audit the target, make a determination, and assess tax which the target paid before November 2010. This theory is so implausible that it does not justify the supplementation of the administrative record.” 2021 T. C. Memo. 73, at p. 12.

But IRS, like me, loves summary J, although Tax Court frowns thereon. Whistleblower cases are decided on the administrative record; there’s no trial.  If the record is incomplete, IRS can supplement, and the blower can demand other matter, which IRS saw but left out of the record, be inserted. But it doesn’t matter here.

I can’t remember the last time a blower won in Tax Court.