Schauble Law Group LLC
CIRCULAR 230 DISCLOSURE
December 13, 2012

Explanation of Circular 230 Disclaimer

Treasury Department Circular 230 governs practice before the Internal Revenue Service. It applies to attorneys, accountants and other tax professionals. The rules under Circular 230 generally divide written tax advice into two categories: i) covered opinions that can provide penalty protection for clients, but require a substantial amount of due diligence and legal analysis on the part of the tax professional; and ii) other written guidance that will not provide penalty protection.

For written tax advice that is not a covered opinion, the rules require the inclusion of a legend explaining that the advice cannot be relied upon for penalty protection. In addition, if the writing may be used to market a transaction to another person, the writing must explain that such person should seek advice based upon his particular circumstances from an independent tax advisor.

In order to ensure that written tax guidance is not unintentionally viewed as a covered opinion, and to allow us to avoid rendering covered opinions in cases where clients choose not to pay the additional costs associated with such an opinion, we generally will attach Circular 230 disclaimer language to e-mails, letters, memos and other writings.

The inclusion of the disclaimer in any writing addressing federal tax issues means that the recipient taxpayer cannot use the writing to establish the reasonable cause and good faith defense to any accuracy-related penalties imposed by the IRS.

If you have further questions about the disclaimer included in a letter, e-mail, or other writing that you received, if you would like to discuss receiving written advice that does not include the disclaimer, or if you would like more information about Circular 230 generally, please contact the attorney at Schauble Law Group LLC who initially provided the letter, e-mail, or other writing that included the Circular 230 disclaimer.