Treasury has historically regulated a group called “tax practitioners” (chiefly lawyers, CPA's, and enrolled agents) through the regulations contained in Circular 230. These regulations are issued under the authority of 31 U.S.C. §330 which permits Treasury to regulate “the practice of...

In 2011 the Department of Treasury issued regulations that, for the first time, empowered the IRS to regulate the practice of preparing tax returns. Naturally, many tax return preparers were not happy about being regulated by the Feds. In 2013 a federal district judge nuked the regulations,...