IRS Loses Big In Court (Again), Tax Season Chugs Along

On January 18, 2013, a federal court stopped IRS “dead in its tracks” from enforcing its new regulatory scheme for registered tax-return preparers. In response, the IRS filed a motion to stay the injunction – that’s a lawyerly way of saying that the IRS asked the court not to enforce the injunction and to allow them to continue regulating tax preparers until an appeal could be heard. To win that argument, the IRS had to demonstrate, among other things, “immediate harm” if the stay isn’t granted. On February 1, 2013, a federal court denied the IRS motion. The Court also went to great lengths to modify the injunction to make it clear that the “requirements are less burdensome than the IRS claims.” In other words, the IRS motion implied that the injunction was more over-reaching than it really was. Read More...