City may pay you for turning in tax cheats

Would you be willing to rat out a business that's cheating Chicago on taxes in exchange for a share of back taxes recovered?

City Hall is counting on it.

Mayor Daley's tough-times, 2010 budget includes a first-ever "Tax Whistleblower Program" expected to include cash bounties for informants who deliver the goods on unpaid business taxes.

The cash reward would be a percentage of the amount recovered, but specifics are still being worked out. The dreaded employee head tax and lease tax are just two of the most frequent targets for tax cheats.

"It's just another way of bringing people into compliance," said Revenue Department spokesman Ed Walsh.

"It would probably be ... a business knowing that a competitor is not remitting a tax. An employee [of the tax-dodging business] could know that, too. Typically, you need to provide some type of incentive."

The whistleblower program isn't the only new revenue initiative in 2010.

The Revenue Department is also mapping plans to start sending e-mails to motorists whenever vehicles they own get parking or red-light tickets.

They could choose to pay their fines immediately -- either the old-fashioned way or by issuing electronic checks. And, in the case of a red-light ticket, the city could be spared the cost of mailing notices.

"It might be advantageous to parents who loan the car to their kids. That way, they'd be made aware of the ticket sooner," Walsh said.

Yet another plan would let booted motorists settle their debts online.