Treasury Seeks To Tighten Conduct Rules For Tax Professionals
By by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington
15 December 2003

The US Treasury Department announced last Thursday that it plans to issue a “strong” set of rules governing the conduct of accountants and other tax professionals.

Speaking to the media after delivering a speech to a George Washington University and Internal Revenue Service tax symposium, Assistant Treasury Secretary for tax policy Pamela Olson explained: "We initially thought we were going to be making a lot of changes” to the draft proposals.

"But after reflecting on what we've seen in the last couple of years, we don't think we should be watering these down," added Olson. "We think we should come out with a strong set of rules."

The rules in question relate to the ‘Circular 230’ professional conduct regulation for lawyers, accountants, enrolled agents and other tax professionals which the Treasury wants to tighten in its campaign to combat the aggressive marketing of abusive tax shelters.

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