Some practitioners are worried that the IRS has given itself new means to discipline tax return preparers considered to have acted unethically by shifting the power to sanction and discipline practitioners from the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility to the administrative divisions of the agency.

Practitioners are offering relatively consistent interpretations of sentences resulting from an ongoing series of Justice Department foreign bank account reporting prosecutions against taxpayers with unreported offshore accounts, agreeing the sentences are light.

Recently released opinions in Circular 230 disciplinary proceedings confirm that practitioners under review for alleged ethical violations usually don't have much luck in escaping the sanctions sought by the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility. While both cases dealt with familiar noncompliance issues, several arguments made by OPR might trouble tax professionals concerned about the extent of the office's authority.