Best Practices for Tax Advisors

Categories: Ethics, IRS CE
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About Course

This self-study ethics program provides an in-depth examination of the best practices standard set forth in Treasury Department Circular 230, Section 10.33, and its application throughout tax practice. The course addresses the elements of best practices in providing advice and in preparing or assisting in the preparation of a submission to the IRS — communicating clearly with the client regarding the terms of the engagement, establishing the relevant facts, evaluating the reasonableness of assumptions and representations, relating the applicable law to the relevant facts, arriving at a conclusion supported by the law and the facts, advising the client regarding the import of the conclusions reached, and acting fairly and with integrity in practice before the IRS — together with the firm-level procedures a tax practice should maintain to encourage adherence to these practices.

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What Will You Learn?

  • Identify the elements of best practices for tax advisors under Circular 230 §10.33(a)
  • Apply the standard for clear communication with the client regarding the terms of an engagement
  • Apply the standards for establishing relevant facts and evaluating the reasonableness of assumptions and representations
  • Apply the standard for relating applicable law to the relevant facts to reach a supported conclusion
  • Apply the standard for advising a client regarding the import of conclusions reached, including penalty considerations
  • Recognize the aspirational, non-disciplinary character of §10.33 and how it relates to other enforceable Circular 230 duties
  • Identify firm-level procedures that support best-practices adherence across a tax practice

Course Content

Module 1 – Understanding Best Practices Under Circular 230 §10.33
This course examines Circular 230 §10.33, the provision addressing best practices for tax advisors. This module introduces what the regulation identifies as best practices, why it is structured differently from many of the other duties addressed elsewhere in this Ethics Series, and how the elements it identifies fit together as a single, practical advisory framework.

  • Understanding Best Practices Under Circular 230 §10.33

Module 2 – Communicating Engagement Terms and Establishing the Relevant Facts
Module 1 introduced the full sequence of best practices under §10.33 and explained the aspirational character of the standard. This module examines the first two stages of that sequence in depth: communicating clearly with the client about the terms of an engagement, and establishing the relevant facts an engagement actually depends on. Both stages occur before any legal analysis begins, and both shape everything that follows.

Module 3 – Relating Law to Facts and Advising the Client on the Conclusion
Module 2 addressed the first stages of the best-practices sequence: communicating engagement terms clearly and establishing the relevant facts. This module addresses the remaining stages: relating the applicable law to those facts, arriving at a conclusion the law and facts actually support, and advising the client on what that conclusion actually means, including its bearing on potential penalty exposure.

Module 4 – Firm-Level Procedures and the Relationship to Enforceable Duties
The first three modules of this course examined the individual elements of best practices under §10.33: communicating engagement terms, establishing facts, relating law to those facts, and advising the client on the resulting conclusion. This module turns to how a practice builds these elements into a consistent system, examines acting fairly and with integrity as the standard running through everything else in this course, and clarifies how §10.33 relates to the enforceable duties addressed elsewhere in this Ethics Series. Together, these four modules describe not just what best practices requires in a single engagement, but how a practitioner or a practice builds the habits that make meeting that standard the ordinary course of business rather than an occasional achievement.

Final Assessment – Best Practices for Tax Advisors
This final assessment consists of 10 multiple-choice questions covering all four modules of this course. A passing score of 70% or better is required.

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