¹⁵Treasury Circular 230, Regulations Governing the Practice of Attorneys, Certified Public Accountants, Enrolled Agents and Appraisers Before the Internal Revenue Service (hereinafter, Circular 230).

¹⁶TD 9011 (7/27/02).

¹⁷According to TD 9011, the Section 10.29 regulations proposed in January 2001were modified to conform more closely with the approach of the recently revised Model Rule 1.7 of the American Bar Association (ABA) Rules of Professional Conduct, which uses a directly adverse standard for determining when conflicts of interest are significant enough to require a waiver.

¹⁸See Fred H. Edenfield, 507 US 761 (1993) (permissible scope of CPA in-person solicitation) and Institute of Certified Practitioners, 874 F Supp 1370 (ND GA 1994).

¹⁹The AICPA believes that attempts to regulate the publication and dissemination of fee schedules could lead to market distortions, because the Circular 230 regulations apply to only a portion of the marketplace.

²⁰Practitioners may also be subject to a private reprimand under Section 10.60.

²¹See Wolfman, Holden and Harris, Standards of Tax Practice, at pp. 3335 (Tax Analysts, 5th ed., 1999); Raby and Raby, Tax Practitioner Standards and Professional Self-Discipline, 97 Tax Notes 93 (10/7/02).

²²IRM 20.1.6.2.1 lists the penalties that result in mandatory referral.

²³Section 10.81 permits a disbarred practitioner and a disqualified appraiser to petition for reinstatement after five years. The DOP may grant the petition if satisfied that the petitioner, thereafter, is not likely to conduct himself contrary to the regulations in this part.

²⁴Because Section 10.79 describes neither the duration nor the general circumstances under which the DOP may impose any of these sanctions, it is possible that the conditions imposed on a censured practitioner for an indeterminate period could actually exceed the suspensions duration. In its initial comments to the IRS on April 23, 2001, the AICPA expressed concern that guidelines were needed to ensure that Circular 230 is administered in a manner that is fair and transparent to all practitioners.