Informant tips

Informant tips also help the IRS determine which tax returns get IRS audits. Informant tips are information the IRS receives from various sources concerning questionable activities or tax information of a tax payer or tax payers.

The IRS relies on information from informants to determine the IRS audit potential of a tax return. Many informants provide the information to the IRS anonymously. Sometimes informant tips come with rewards, monetary or otherwise.

But if the informant wants to collect rewards or money for the information, the IRS informant must provide his or her identity to the IRS.  

Don't discuss any tax information with anyone

Since you don't know who will turn out to be IRS informants and provide the IRS with informant tips, you should nevermore discuss confidential tax information with anyone. This includes friends and family members. Informant tips could be deciding factors for IRS audits of a tax payer' s tax return.