For the past several years, many tax practitioners have been adding a form of disclaimer to every email because of concerns about the “covered opinion” rules of Circular 230.

On June 9, the Treasury published final regulations amending Circular 230 and eliminating the need for any disclaimers.  The Treasury Decision expressly states that “Treasury and the IRS expect that these amendments will eliminate the use of a Circular 230 disclaimer in e-mail and other writings.”  T.D. 9668, 79 F.R. 33685 (6/12/2014).

Last week, the IRS Office of Professional Responsibilty went further, and affirmatively asked practitioners to stop using those kinds of disclaimers.  OPR Director Karen Hawkins said that, if you continue to use those kind of disclaimers, “you will get a letter from my office asking you to cease and desist using that kind of language because I don’t want taxpayers to be misinformed.”