Credentials
Check the IRS Discipline Records Before You Hire Anyone
By Darrin T. Mish, Attorney · 5 min read · October 9, 2026
The short answer
The IRS Office of Professional Responsibility publishes a searchable record of practitioners censured, suspended, or disbarred for Circular 230 violations within the last 25 years, plus announcements in the Internal Revenue Bulletin. It takes minutes and costs nothing. Check every name before you sign.
A license tells you someone got in. A discipline record tells you whether they have been thrown out, or sent to the corner. Both matter, and the second one is surprisingly easy to check.
Most people never look. They should. It is one of the few background checks on a tax professional that is free, official, and fast.
What the IRS publishes
The IRS's page on records about disciplinary actions lists several resources from the Office of Professional Responsibility:
- A search for disciplined tax professionals, which the IRS describes as a searchable record of practitioners censured, suspended from practice, or disbarred, and appraisers disqualified, for Circular 230 violations within the last 25 years.
- Announcements of disciplinary sanctions published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin, including disbarments, suspensions, censures, and reinstatements.
- Final agency decisions in disciplinary proceedings, which OPR makes public once they become final.
- Case dispositions by calendar year.
- Publication 6033, which explains the restrictions on individuals who have been suspended or disbarred from practice before the IRS.
What the sanctions mean
Circular 230 section 10.50 lets the Treasury Department, after notice and an opportunity for a proceeding, censure, suspend, or disbar a practitioner who is incompetent or disreputable, who violates the regulations, or who willfully and knowingly misleads or threatens a client with intent to defraud. The IRS's OPR page also lists monetary penalties among available sanctions.
IRS practitioner sanctions in plain terms
| Sanction | What it means for you as a buyer |
|---|---|
| Censure | A public reprimand. The person may still practice. Ask what happened and what changed. |
| Suspension | The person may not practice before the IRS during the suspension. Do not hire them for IRS work during that period. |
| Disbarment | The person may not practice before the IRS. Do not hire them for IRS representation. |
| Monetary penalty | A financial sanction for violating the rules. Ask what conduct was involved. |
Suspension and disbarment also limit what the person can do informally. Section 10.7(c)(2)(i) says an individual under suspension or disbarment may not engage in the limited practice that section otherwise allows, such as representing a family member or employer.
What kinds of conduct lead there
Section 10.51 lists examples of incompetence and disreputable conduct. A few are especially relevant to buyers:
- Conviction of a federal tax crime, or of a crime involving dishonesty or breach of trust.
- Giving false or misleading information to the Treasury Department.
- Using false or misleading representations to get clients, or implying the ability to obtain improper special consideration from the IRS.
- Misappropriating, or failing to promptly remit, money a client gave for paying taxes.
- Disbarment or suspension as an attorney, CPA, or public accountant by a state or other authority.
- Knowingly helping another person practice before the IRS while suspended, disbarred, or ineligible.
That last item matters for firms. A company that keeps a disbarred person on the phone with clients while someone else signs the paperwork is exposing the licensed person to discipline, and you to a mess.
How to run the check
- Get the full legal name of the individual who will represent you, and their city and state if possible.
- Search the IRS's disciplined tax professionals database for that name.
- Search the Internal Revenue Bulletin announcements if you want more detail on any hit.
- For attorneys, also check the state bar's public records. For CPAs, check the state board of accountancy.
- If you find a sanction, ask the professional about it directly, and weigh the answer.
Common names produce false hits. Match city, state, and credential before drawing conclusions. If the person you are checking was sanctioned, the record usually makes the connection clear.
What a clean result does and does not mean
No record is a good start, not a clean bill of health. Discipline takes time. Many complaints never reach a public sanction. And the IRS database covers Circular 230 discipline, not every problem a person might have had with a state bar, a board of accountancy, or a court.
That is why the discipline check is one step in a sequence, not the whole sequence. Pair it with the license lookup and the interview in verifying credentials and the questions to ask.
How discipline travels
Discipline in one system can show up in another. Circular 230 section 10.80 says that when a final order censures, suspends, or disbars a practitioner, notice goes to appropriate IRS officers and employees and interested federal agencies, and the IRS may determine how to notify the state that licensed the person.
Going the other way, section 10.51(a)(10) makes disbarment or suspension by a state licensing authority grounds for IRS discipline. So a serious problem with a state bar or board of accountancy can lead to consequences before the IRS too.
Asking about a past sanction
Finding a censure or a past suspension does not automatically disqualify someone. People make mistakes, serve their sanction, and practice well afterward. What matters is how they talk about it.
Ask what happened, when, and what they changed. A professional who owns the problem and can explain the fix may be a reasonable hire. One who denies a public record, blames the IRS, or gets angry that you looked is showing you how they will handle the next problem, which may be yours.
Check before you sign, and again later
Run the check before you sign an engagement letter or pay. If your case lasts a long time, or the firm reassigns your file, run it again on the new name. A practitioner who was in good standing when you hired them can be suspended later, and section 10.7 bars a suspended person from even limited practice before the IRS.
If you discover mid-case that your representative has been suspended or disbarred, do not wait. Revoke the power of attorney, get your records, and bring in someone authorized to practice. The steps are in switching tax representatives.
Where this fits in the hiring process
Think of the hiring process as a funnel. The license check removes people who are not allowed to do the work. The discipline check removes people who have been caught doing it badly. The interview and the engagement letter separate the good from the merely allowed.
Each step takes a few minutes. Together they eliminate most of the bad outcomes described elsewhere in this guide, from ghost preparers to the tax relief cases the FTC has brought.
The records also show patterns
Browse the published case dispositions and announcements once, even if you are not checking a specific person. You will see the categories of conduct listed in section 10.51 applied to real practitioners, with names, dates, and sanctions attached.
That short read is an education. It tells you which promises and behaviors deserve suspicion when you meet them in a sales call, and it reminds you that the rules in Circular 230 are enforced against real people.
It also gives you vocabulary. When you ask a professional about their record, you will know what censure, suspension, and disbarment mean, and you will not be talked out of a concern by someone who assumes you do not.
Keep a record of your check
When you run the search, save a screenshot or note the date and the result. If a problem surfaces later, you will be able to show that you did your homework, and you will know exactly when the record was clean. It is a small habit that pays off if you ever need to file a complaint or explain a decision to a family member.
Checking the people behind a company
You cannot look up a company in the IRS discipline database, because Circular 230 disciplines individuals. So ask the company for the names of the licensed professionals who will work on your case, and check each one.
If a company will not give you names, you cannot do this check at all. That is reason enough to keep shopping. The national firms chapter explains why the individual matters more than the brand.