Appeals Court Refuses to Lift Injunction Against IRS

J. Justin Wilson
J. Justin Wilson · March 27, 2013


Arlington, Va.—Today the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the IRS’s renewed request to suspend a January 18 ruling that struck down the IRS’s new tax-preparer licensing scheme as unlawful.

A three-judge special panel of the D.C. Circuit upheld U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg’s refusal to lift his injunction against the IRS’s registered tax return preparer (RTRP) regulations. The appeals court’s brief order found that the IRS “ha[d] not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending appeal.”

“This ruling protects the rights of our clients and hundreds of thousands of tax-return preparers to continue earning an honest living while this case is on appeal,” said Senior Attorney Scott Bullock at the Institute for Justice (IJ), the lead attorney on appeal for the three independent tax preparers who challenged the regulations. “The IRS claimed that the sky would fall if the injunction remained, but both the district court and the appeals court saw through that rhetoric.”

“We will continue to fight the IRS’s unlawful power grab on appeal,” said IJ Attorney Dan Alban. “Congress never gave the IRS the authority to license tax preparers, and the IRS can’t give itself that power.”

For more on the lawsuit and ruling, please visit www.ij.org/IRS.