Confidential informants are paid anywhere from about $20 for a single street-level tip to well over $1 million for years of cooperation in major federal cases. How much confidential informants get paid depends on the agency running the source, the value of what the source delivers, and the risk the cooperation involves. There is no salary, no pay scale, and no guaranteed minimum.
What the Numbers Actually Look Like
The clearest window into informant pay comes from a Department of Justice Inspector General audit of the DEA. Between 2010 and 2015, the agency paid roughly $237 million to about 9,000 confidential sources. The average works out to around $26,000 per source, but the distribution is extreme at both ends.1U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. DEA Payments to Confidential Sources
At the high end, nine sources in the DEA’s Intelligence Division together received $25 million out of a $30 million intelligence budget. One Amtrak employee earned over $960,000 across 20 years as a DEA informant. A parcel company employee earned more than $1 million over 12 years. At the low end, routine tips and small controlled buys pay a few hundred dollars or less.
The FBI has historically spent an average of about $42 million per year on confidential human sources. Federal agencies draw this money from congressional appropriations and from the DOJ Assets Forfeiture Fund, which can be used to pay for information leading to criminal or civil forfeitures and for information about drug and money laundering offenses.2Department of Justice. Assets Forfeiture Fund
What Determines the Size of a Payment
The biggest driver is the value of the information. Agencies measure that in outcomes: did the tip produce an arrest, a seizure, an indictment, or the disruption of an organization? A piece of information that opens up a trafficking network is worth far more than a one-off tip about a street dealer.
Risk is the next factor. Making controlled purchases, wearing a recording device, or working inside a violent organization pays more than passing along overheard information. Case type matters too. Organized crime and terrorism investigations carry larger budgets than local narcotics work, and federal agencies generally pay better than state or local departments.
Track record builds over time. A first-time source with unproven information earns less than someone who has delivered reliable intelligence across multiple cases. Longer cooperation accumulates more total pay, though every individual payment still needs its own justification and supervisory approval.
Larger payments trigger formal review. Under the Attorney General’s Guidelines, any payment to a confidential source exceeding $100,000 in aggregate within a single year must be authorized by a senior field manager and expressly approved by a designated senior headquarters official. Payments exceeding $200,000 in aggregate, regardless of timeframe, require the same senior-level approval.1U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. DEA Payments to Confidential Sources
Statutory Reward Programs
Separate from the day-to-day informant arrangement, several federal programs set defined award ranges for people who submit original information. These are the formal cousin of informant pay, and they show what the ceiling can look like.
- Bank Secrecy Act violations: the Treasury Department may pay up to 25 percent of the fine, penalty, or forfeiture collected, or $150,000, whichever is less. The underlying recovery must exceed $50,000, and government employees acting in their official capacity are ineligible.3eCFR. 31 CFR 1010.930 – Rewards for Informants
- Customs and trade violations: a person providing original information leading to recovery of withheld duties, fines, or forfeited property may receive up to 25 percent of the net amount recovered, capped at $250,000 per case.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 19 U.S. Code 1619 – Award of Compensation to Informers
- IRS whistleblower (large cases): when the tax dispute exceeds $2 million and the target’s gross income exceeds $200,000, the IRS Whistleblower Office pays between 15 and 30 percent of the proceeds collected. If the case was principally based on publicly available information, the maximum drops to 10 percent.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 7623 – Expenses of Detection of Underpayments and Fraud
- SEC whistleblower: individuals who provide original information leading to SEC enforcement actions with over $1 million in sanctions may receive between 10 and 30 percent of the money collected.6U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Whistleblower Program
IRS and SEC awards have individually reached into the hundreds of millions of dollars. These cases take years to resolve, and the role looks nothing like a confidential source working drug buys on the street.
When the Real Payment Is a Shorter Sentence
For informants facing their own charges, the most valuable form of compensation is often not money. Under federal law, a court may impose a sentence below a statutory mandatory minimum when the government files a motion stating that the defendant provided substantial assistance in investigating or prosecuting another person. The prosecutor controls whether to file that motion. A defendant cannot demand it, no matter how useful the cooperation turned out to be.
A person looking at a 10-year mandatory minimum who delivers testimony and intelligence that takes down a drug network might end up with two or three years. Charges can be reduced or dropped entirely in some cases. The outcome runs through the prosecutor, the court, and the sentencing guidelines, not the investigating agents, which is why agents are usually candid about the uncertainty during recruitment.
Expenses Paid On Top of Information Payments
Agencies reimburse expenses incurred during cooperation separately from payments for information. Federal guidelines treat these as “Purchase of Services” and cover travel and transportation, leased apartments or business fronts, vehicles used to maintain an undercover appearance, meals, entertainment, and communication costs for undercover purposes.7Office of Justice Programs. Financial Guide Part III Chapter 8 – Confidential Funds Reimbursements require receipts and supervisory approval and sit in a different budget line from information payments.
The Taxes You Will Owe
Informant payments are taxable income. Every January, the controlling agent is required to advise the informant of the total taxable payments received during the prior year, and the informant is expected to report that figure on their tax return. If the IRS finds that an informant failed to report these payments, the agency may terminate the relationship and disclose the reason to other government agencies, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office.8Internal Revenue Service. IRM 9.4.2 Sources of Information
Law enforcement agencies are not required to file a 1099 for these payments. IRS instructions specifically exempt fees, awards, and rewards paid to informers by federal, state, or local government agencies for information about criminal activity.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC No form flows automatically to the IRS, but the income is still legally yours and still taxable. The absence of a 1099 is not the absence of a tax obligation.
What the Money Does Not Buy
Confidential informants are not government employees and cannot represent themselves as such. That means no workers’ compensation, no benefits, and no employment protections if the cooperation goes badly. The Attorney General’s Guidelines state that nothing in them creates any enforceable legal right or private right of action for a confidential informant. The government will try to protect your identity but cannot guarantee it will not be revealed. There are no guaranteed payments, and investigating agents cannot independently promise immunity from prosecution, since that authority belongs to the prosecutor and the court.10U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. Role of Confidential Informants – Special Report
The suitability process does require agencies to assess the risk of physical harm to the source and their family, but that assessment is a factor in whether to use someone, not a promise to keep them safe. If the calculation changes mid-investigation, the agency can deactivate the source at any time, with no obligation beyond payments already authorized.