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In Major Victory for IRS DC Circuit Upholds IRS Annual Filing Program

Posted on Aug. 16, 2018

In a major victory for IRS, in AICPA v IRS, the DC Circuit upheld the voluntary annual filing season program. The annual program allows unenrolled preparers to take a competency test and satisfy continuing education requirements in exchange for limited representation rights before Exam and publication in the IRS’s database of preparers, along with enrolled agents, CPAs and attorneys. The opinion reaches the merits of the IRS’s authority to create the annual program. In a prior opinion, the district court had found that AICPA did not have standing to bring the action that challenged the program. The DC Circuit, by reaching the merits of AICPA’s challenge, analyzed the reach of Loving and whether the program was a legislative rule that should have been issued via regulations rather than via a revenue procedure.

To get to the merits of the dispute the DC Circuit reversed the lower court on statutory standing.  The lower court held that AICPA did not have standing to bring the challenge. The DC Circuit felt that the additional supervisory responsibilities of CPAs and other licensed preparers, and the concomitant possibility that failing to supervise those preparers may bring sanctions under Circular 230, meant that AICPA had enough skin in the game to challenge the program.

The real importance of this decision is twofold:  first, the majority opinion takes a somewhat limited read of Loving, and second, in finding that the program is not a legislative rule for APA purposes and thus was not required to be issued under the APA notice and comment regime, the opinion provides cover for other IRS actions that the IRS may argue are merely interpretive and thus not subject to notice and comment.

As to the AICPA view that the annual program was a backdoor way to avoid Loving and regulate return preparation, the court disagreed, emphasizing that the rules allow for establishing competence in representing taxpayers in the exam process rather than regulate return prep per se:

We see nothing in the Program that attempts to resurrect regulations of the type enjoined in the Loving decisions. Unenrolled tax preparers who participate in the program “consent to be subject to the duties and restrictions relating to practice before the IRS in [certain sections of] Circular 230,”id. § 4.05(4); they do not consent to be governed by Circular 230 insofar as they are engaged in the business of tax preparation.

The Program also ties violations of Circular 230 to the limited practice right, not to the preparation of tax returns: Record of Completion holders “who violate Circular 230 during the course of [their] representation [before the IRS]will have their Record of Completion and ability to represent a taxpayer before the IRS under this revenue procedure revoked.” Id. § 7.01(2). When seen in this light, it is clear that the participants’ commitment to follow Circular 230 is coextensive with the IRS’s authority under § 330(a) to regulate practice before it.

The issue that generated a spirited dissent was whether the program required notice and comment. This case is another in a line of cases where courts (mostly in the nontax context) have struggled to define what in fact is a legislative rule which, under the APA, requires notice and comment, as compared to an interpretive rule that is not required to be issued through notice and comment. Here, that was a crucial issue because the IRS served up these rules via a revenue procedure, rather than via regulations. AICPA argued that the program was in fact a legislative rule and the IRS failure to comply with notice and comment meant that it was improperly established.

The majority’s view that the rules were not legislative stemmed mostly from the voluntary nature of the program:

In this case the Revenue Procedure and associated Program do not bind unenrolled preparers at all; the Program merely provides an opportunity for those unenrolled preparers who both choose to participate and satisfy its requirements.

As to the argument that the rules imposed new burdens on supervisors (more akin to a legislative rule), the majority noted that supervisors had responsibilities under Circular 230 prior to the program, and that the opt in to Circular 230 for the unlicensed preparers who take the annual program does not extend to additional supervisory responsibilities pertaining to return preparation:

Nor does it impose any new or different requirement upon supervisors or unenrolled agents; Circular 230 bound supervisors and unenrolled agents before the Program took effect and continues to bind them now. [note omitted]

In further finding that the rule was interpretive, the majority took a dig at IRS for not being clearer in its revenue procedure that it meant to illustrate the meaning of the statutory term competence:

The AICPA also argues the Revenue Procedure cannot be an interpretive rule, and in its view therefore must be a legislative rule, because it “contains not a word of the reasoned statutory interpretation … that typifies an interpretative rule.” We disagree, although we acknowledge the agency could have been more clear. By clarifying how an unenrolled preparer seeking to practice before the IRS may “demonstrate … necessary qualifications … and competency” within the meaning of § 330(a), the Revenue Procedure “reflects an agency’s construction of a statute that has been entrusted to the agency to administer.” Syncor Int’l Corp. v. Shalala, 127 F.3d 90, 94 (D.C. Cir. 1997); see Interport Inc. v. Magaw, 135 F.3d 826, 828-29 (D.C. Cir. 1998) (holding a rule interpretive where “it explains more specifically what is meant” in another authority, in that case a legislative rule). As stated above, the Program requires unenrolled preparers who want to participate to complete a set number of hours of instruction, on specific topics, and pass a test before gaining the limited practice right. See REV. PROC. 2014-42 §§ 4, 6. Those requirements are the agency’s interpretation of what § 330(a) means by “competency” and the other criteria it lists. [footnote omitted]

The dissent focused on two main issues: first, it noted that the IRS power to allow unenrolled preparers limited rights in examinations initially arose via regulations that were issued with notice and comment, and changes to those rules likewise had to follow from notice and comment. Second, it argued that the majority opinion failed to appreciate the reach of Circular 230 and its possible imposition of monetary sanctions for violations of the annual program.

Practitioners and academics will be digging in deeper on the spirited disagreement between the dissent and majority on whether the program is in fact the product of a legislative rule. The disagreement between the majority and dissent over the reach of Circular 230 (and whether the program imposes the possibility of newer sanctions on supervisors)  reminded me of Karen Hawkins’ insightful 2017 Griswold lecture, where she discussed how “because it has not been amended to reflect current case law, legislation or clarifications….” parts of Circular 230 have “become vague, ambiguous, outdated and, in some instances unadministrable.”

My quick takeaway of the case is that there is significant uncertainty in the reach of Circular 230 and the contours as to what is a legislative rule. IRS should tread carefully when establishing new programs as significant as this. IRS could have benefitted from the input that notice and comment provides, as well as perhaps given it more time to think through how the program could be more effectively administered.

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