Announcement 2008-50

The Office of Professional Responsibility intends to publish announcements of disciplinary sanctions in a redesigned format that will list specific violations of Treasury Department Circular No. 230. A new “Disciplinary Sanction” column of the announcements will include the relevant section number of Circular 230 and a brief description of misconduct. Each announcement will be headed by an introduction that explains the various types of sanctions, for example, disbarment or suspension from practice before the IRS.

The listing of individuals sanctioned will continue to include the professional designation: attorney, certified public accountant, enrolled agent, enrolled actuary, enrolled retirement plan agent, or appraiser. The listing in the new format will be alphabetized first by the names of the individuals’ states of residence and second by the last names of the individuals sanctioned.

Previously, OPR endeavored to publish announcements of disciplinary sanctions on a quarterly basis, and each announcement was published in five consecutive issues of the Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB). Future announcements will be published more frequently, and each announcement will be published in one issue of the IRB and also in the Cumulative Bulletin.

OPR redesigned the format of the announcements in order to expand the public availability of information about disciplinary proceedings and disciplinary sanctions. The first announcement in the new format is expected to be published in June 2008.