Practitioners may request information from the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) regarding investigations into their potential violations of the document governing practice before the IRS. (Issue Number: 2025-7, 5/28/2025)
Background.
The OPR serves as the IRS’ body for holding tax practitioners, preparers, and relevant third-parties accountable to the law and professional standards. OPR investigates and may penalize tax professionals who violate Circular 230, a code of conduct that provides compliance guardrails for tax administration.
OPR is authorized to conduct disciplinary proceedings and pursue possible sanctions against practitioners found to be in explicit violation of Circular 230. Its investigations can also examine appraisers who support tax positions in disputes with the IRS.
These efforts, the OPR maintains, are “the building blocks for competent and ethical representation of taxpayers and is an integral part of fair and effective tax administration.”
Investigations.
An OPR Practitioner Alert released May 28, the IRS clarified that OPR “acts generally independently” from IRS tax compliance and collection operations. Therefore, OPR is subject to Code Sec. 6013 confidentiality and disclosure rules that protect tax return information. OPR coordinates with IRS business units to prevent unauthorized disclosures.
When a practitioner is under investigation, that means an “actionable referral” was reported to OPR, which opens a case and notifies the practitioner in question. This is communicated via letter, which solicits a response from the practitioner with an opportunity to request the case’s underlying documents and applicable information.
Practitioners may obtain certain non-privileged, releasable material about their case.
Section 6103 request letters.
The alert provides a link to a template for a standard Section 6103 information-request letter. Upon approval, the practitioner or their representative is enabled access to tax returns and other statutorily protected federal tax information, or FTI.
Code Sec. 6103(e)(1) and Code Sec. 6103(e)(7) allows a practitioner, “in their status as a taxpayer,” to view requested information from the case file about themselves. Code Sec. 6103(l)(4) authorizes the disclosure of tax return information about other persons who could be affected by a Circular 230 action or proceeding. OPR stressed that such material is limited only to “materially relevant” third-party FTI.
The letter request process differs from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in that the letter “generally will be an easier and quicker way to obtain the information sought and will most often result in greater release of information than a FOIA request,” OPR explained.
The IRS does not release third-party tax information through FOIA requests, so practitioners are advised to send a Section 6103 request instead. Practitioners should note, though, that letter requests “will only yield responsive records held by the OPR itself, not records maintained in files elsewhere in the IRS.”
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