It's Whistleblower Appreciation Day, celebrating the 246th anniversary of legislation

July 30, 1778, at the height of the American Revolution, the first US whistleblower law was passed. And 246 years later it’s the latest Whistleblower Appreciation Day.

The day has been recognized every year since 2013 by the Senate and celebrated on Capitol Hill as a celebration of “the bravery and heroism of whistleblowers across the United States and the historic contributions they have made to society, democracy, and to anticorruption efforts across the globe,” according to the National Whistleblower Center, which supports those who report wrongdoing.

The IRS has hailed the day as important to recognize the role of whistleblowers. The tax agency has paid over $1.2 billion in awards based on the successful collection of $7 billion from non-compliant taxpayers between 2007 and June 2024.

In fiscal year 2023 it paid awards of almost $89 million on $338 million collected as a result of whistleblower-provided information and its Whistleblower Office established 16,932 award claims, an increase of 44% compared to the average of the prior four years.

“The IRS appreciates the valuable contributions that thousands of whistleblowers have made to help bolster the fair and effective enforcement of our nation’s tax laws,” said IRS Whistleblower Office Director John Hinman. “Information from whistleblowers continues to be an incredibly effective aid to IRS compliance efforts, and we are committed to improving our whistleblower program by increasing our capacity to use high-value whistleblower information effectively, awarding whistleblowers fairly and as soon as possible, and keeping whistleblowers informed of their claim’s status and the basis for IRS decisions on claims.”

Meanwhile, the SEC awarded a total of almost $2 billion to nearly 400 whistleblowers through the SEC's whistleblower award program in FY2023. The largest was a record paid to single whistleblower – a $279 million award made in May 2023 - while a more modest $37 million was paid this month to an individual. Awardees receive between 10% and 30% of the monetary sanctions collected when they are above $1 million.

Recently, the CFPB warned that financial services firms that require employees to sign nondisclosure agreements that are too broad could be breaking the law.