The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) announces recent disciplinary sanctions involving attorneys, certified public accountants, enrolled agents, enrolled actuaries, enrolled retirement plan agents, and appraisers. These individuals are subject to the regulations governing practice before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which are set out in Title 31, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 10, and which are published in pamphlet form as Treasury Department Circular No. 230. The regulations prescribe the duties and restrictions relating to such practice and prescribe the disciplinary sanctions for violating the regulations.

This guidance contains T.D. 9962, final regulations relating to the user fees for the special enrollment examinations for enrolled agents and enrolled retirement plan agents, the EA SEE and ERPA SEE, respectively. In accordance with the guidelines in OMB Circular A-25, the IRS has re-calculated its cost of overseeing the EA SEE and determined that the full cost has increased to $99 per part, plus an amount payable directly to a third-party contractor. The IRS no longer offers new enrollment as an ERPA or the ERPA SEE. Therefore, the regulations increase the amount of the user fee for the EA SEE from $81 to $99 per part and remove the user fee for the ERPA SEE.

26 CFR 300.0 (amended), 300.4 (amended), 300.9 (removed), and 300.10 through 300.13 (redesignated)

This guidance contains proposed amendments to the regulations relating to user fees for enrolled agents and enrolled retirement plan agents. In accordance with the guidelines in OMB Circular A-25, the IRS has re-calculated its cost of overseeing the enrollment and renewal program and determined that the full cost for overseeing the renewal of enrolled retirement plan agents has increased from $67 to $140. In addition, the cost for overseeing both the enrollment and renewal of enrolled agents has increased from $67 to $140. Therefore, the proposed regulations increase the renewal user fee for enrolled retirement plan agents from $67 to $140. In addition, the proposed regulations increase both the enrollment and renewal user fee for enrolled agents from $67 to $140.

These proposed regulations provide guidance related to the sections 114 and 401 of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act), enacted on December 20, 2019, as Division O of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2019, Pub. L. 116-94, 133 Stat. 2534 (2019). Section 114 of the SECURE Act increased the mandatory age by which distributions from a retirement plan are required to begin from 70½ to 72, and section 401 of the SECURE Act limits the ability of designated beneficiaries to take distributions over their life expectancies unless they meet certain exceptions. In addition, the regulations will seek to clarify certain issues related to trusts as beneficiaries and situations under which a beneficiary is identifiable for purposes of section 401(a)(9) of the Code. These proposed regulations also provide guidance related to eligible rollover distributions under section 402(c) reflecting statutory changes to that section since regulations were first issued in 1995.