New IRS Appeals Rule: What Accounting Firms Must Know

The Treasury Department has issued final regulations that provide guidance on the resolution of Federal tax controversies by the IRS Independent Office of Appeals (Appeals) under the Taxpayer First Act of 2019 (TFA). Published as 90 FR 3645 and effective January 15, 2025, the rule confirms that the Appeals resolution process is generally available to all taxpayers who want to resolve a Federal tax controversy — but it also sets out exceptions to Appeals consideration and procedural and timing rules a taxpayer must satisfy before Appeals consideration becomes available. For accounting firms that represent clients in front of the IRS, that combination of general availability, defined exceptions, and a procedural gate is exactly the kind of detail that needs to live inside a controversy engagement's workflow, not just get read once and filed away.

This guide explains, in plain English, what the final regulations do, who they affect, what accounting firms should do now that the rule is in force, and how a firm can keep the underlying procedural requirements current as its tax controversy docket grows. It leads with the rule's own text and the obligation it creates, not with any product, and gives compliance and engagement teams a sourced picture they can act on without re-reading the full Federal Register entry themselves.

Key Takeaways

• Treasury Department final regulations, cited as 90 FR 3645, provide guidance on resolution of Federal tax controversies by the IRS Independent Office of Appeals under the Taxpayer First Act of 2019 (TFA); the rule is effective January 15, 2025.

• The Appeals resolution process is generally available to all taxpayers, but the final regulations set out certain exceptions to consideration by Appeals.

• The regulations also establish procedural and timing rules that must be met before Appeals consideration becomes available.

• The rule sits at 26 CFR Part 301 and carries RIN 1545-BP72.

• Accounting firms handling Federal tax controversies for clients need to build the eligibility exceptions and procedural prerequisites into how they scope and manage an Appeals request.

• This post is informational only and is not legal or tax advice; consult a qualified attorney or tax advisor before acting on any specific situation.

What this rule actually does

Start with what the regulations do not do: they do not create the Appeals resolution process, and they do not make Appeals consideration available in every case with no conditions attached. 90 FR 3645 is the Treasury Department's final regulations implementing how the IRS Independent Office of Appeals resolves Federal tax controversies under the Taxpayer First Act of 2019 (TFA). The regulations confirm the baseline first: the Appeals resolution process is meant to be generally available to all taxpayers who want to resolve a Federal tax controversy.

The qualification comes next, and it is the part accounting firms need to plan around. The final regulations set out certain exceptions to consideration by Appeals — categories of cases or circumstances where Appeals consideration is not available even though the general rule would otherwise apply. The regulations also lay out procedural and timing rules that a taxpayer, and in practice the representative handling the matter, must satisfy before Appeals consideration is available at all. "Generally available" does not mean "automatic": a taxpayer's path to Appeals runs through a defined procedural gate, as set out in 90 FR 3645, and missing a step in that gate is what keeps a matter from reaching Appeals.

Because the Treasury Department issued this as a final rule, it carries the force of a regulation rather than optional guidance. The rule was published in the Federal Register and became effective on the same date, January 15, 2025. For an accounting firm, the practical reading is that any internal checklist, engagement-letter template, or controversy-intake process built around an assumption of unconditional access to Appeals should be checked against the actual exceptions and procedural rules the regulations set out.

The table above is a straight read of the rule's own administrative details; every value in it traces to 90 FR 3645 as published. Note that the published date and the effective date are the same day — the regulations took legal force the day they appeared in the Federal Register, with no separate runway before compliance began.

Who is affected

The reach of this rule follows the reach of the Appeals resolution process itself: 90 FR 3645 affects taxpayers requesting Appeals consideration of a Federal tax controversy. In practice, very few of those taxpayers navigate that process alone. Accounting firms, and the tax controversy or tax resolution practices inside them, are usually the ones assembling the record, evaluating whether a matter is eligible for Appeals, and tracking the procedural steps and timing the regulations require before Appeals consideration becomes available. A firm's first task under this rule is the same task the rule itself frames: confirm whether a given client matter falls into one of the exceptions to Appeals consideration, and if not, confirm that every procedural and timing requirement has been met before treating Appeals as available.

Accounting firms should also note that the final regulations sit at 26 CFR Part 301 and carry RIN 1545-BP72, and that they operate under the framework Congress set out in the Taxpayer First Act of 2019 (TFA). A firm's tax controversy team benefits from reading the exceptions and procedural rules together with the rest of its Appeals-referral practice, because the regulations function as a gate in front of a process the team already runs — they do not replace that process or the team's own tax judgment.

What accounting firms should do now

The most important thing to take from this rule is that it has already been in force since January 15, 2025 — there is no future deadline to count down to. What that means for an accounting firm is not "get ready," but "get current": any engagement checklist, intake form, or controversy playbook built before that date should be checked against what 90 FR 3645 actually requires, rather than against an assumption that Appeals consideration is automatic.

A sensible, sourced review path looks like this. First, confirm that the firm's controversy-intake process actually tests a matter against the exceptions to Appeals consideration the regulations set out, rather than assuming every client dispute qualifies. Second, confirm that the procedural and timing rules the regulations require before Appeals consideration is available are built into the firm's own case-management timeline, since a missed procedural step — not a judgment call by the taxpayer or the firm — is what keeps a case out of Appeals. Third, keep engagement letters and client communications aligned with the rule's own language: Appeals consideration is described as "generally available," not guaranteed, and a firm should frame it that way to clients rather than promising an outcome the regulations do not promise. Fourth, keep a current copy of 90 FR 3645 on hand and revisit it whenever the IRS or Treasury issues related guidance, since the regulations remain the controlling text for how Appeals eligibility and timing actually work.

Throughout, the operative framing is that the rule requires a taxpayer to meet the stated exceptions and procedural conditions before Appeals consideration is available. This is a description of the regulations as published in the Federal Register, not a personalized legal or tax recommendation to any reader, and it is not a substitute for advice from a qualified attorney or tax advisor.

Operationalizing Appeals-eligibility tracking at volume

The hard part for a growing tax controversy practice is not reading 90 FR 3645 once — it is applying the same exceptions and procedural checklist consistently across every matter the firm opens, including whatever related guidance the IRS or Treasury issues later. That is a workflow-consistency problem, and it is where US Tech Automations fits. Configured against a firm's intake process, the platform can walk a new controversy matter through the same exceptions checklist every time, flag the procedural and timing steps the regulations require before Appeals consideration is available, and route anything ambiguous to a named reviewer instead of leaving it to individual staff judgment case by case. The goal is a workflow that applies the rule the same way on matter one hundred as it did on matter one, without replacing the tax judgment a qualified preparer or attorney brings to any specific case.

How this fits the broader regulatory window

This rule does not exist in a vacuum. It is one of 259 U.S. federal rules sealed in our point-in-time index of rules published July 1, 2024 – July 5, 2026 by 10 agencies governing our covered industries. A single final regulation like 90 FR 3645 is easy enough to read in isolation; the challenge for an accounting firm is that Federal tax controversies sit inside a much larger stream of IRS and Treasury rulemaking, each with its own citation, its own CFR part, and — as this rule shows — its own exceptions and procedural gate that has to be applied correctly every time. A firm that reads a rule once when it is published and then relies on memory for years of client matters will eventually apply it the way it worked at first read, not the way it actually works once later guidance or corrections arrive.

The takeaway for firm leadership is straightforward: Appeals consideration is generally available, the exceptions and procedural rules in 90 FR 3645 decide which matters actually get there, and treating that gate as a one-time read rather than an ongoing part of the firm's controversy workflow is where consistency breaks down. Building a durable way to apply that gate the same way on every matter — the kind of consistency US Tech Automations is built to support — pays off well beyond this single rule. Firms that want to see how that kind of workflow comes together can review how US Tech Automations prices out for a tax controversy practice.

Frequently asked questions

When did this rule take effect?

The final regulations at 90 FR 3645 are effective January 15, 2025, and were published in the Federal Register on the same date.

Which CFR part does this rule affect?

The final regulations sit at 26 CFR Part 301 and carry RIN 1545-BP72.

Does every taxpayer automatically get Appeals consideration?

No. The Appeals resolution process is generally available to all taxpayers, but 90 FR 3645 sets out certain exceptions to consideration by Appeals, so eligibility has to be confirmed for each matter rather than assumed.

What procedural steps does the rule require before Appeals is available?

The final regulations set out procedural and timing rules that a taxpayer must satisfy before Appeals consideration becomes available. The specific requirements are set out in 90 FR 3645 itself, and a qualified tax advisor can confirm how they apply to a specific matter.

How does this rule relate to the Taxpayer First Act of 2019?

The final regulations implement the resolution of Federal tax controversies by the IRS Independent Office of Appeals under the Taxpayer First Act of 2019 (TFA), as described in 90 FR 3645.

How can an accounting firm keep up with related IRS guidance after this rule?

Many firms configure an automated workflow to monitor for new IRS and Treasury documents tied to Appeals procedures and route material changes to a reviewer, so later guidance does not get missed. The primary text remains the rule itself at 90 FR 3645.

Related guidance

For related accounting and tax compliance coverage, see our notes on the IRS partnership-interest sales and exchanges rule, the stock repurchase excise tax rule, and the Federal IDR operations and accounting requirements.

Disclaimer

This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Regulatory requirements are fact-specific, and you should consult a qualified attorney or tax advisor before acting on any matter discussed here. Every date, citation, RIN, CFR reference, and figure in these posts is copied verbatim from the Federal Register and eCFR as of the snapshot date. Nothing is estimated, modeled, or extrapolated. This is not legal or tax advice.

Last reviewed: July 5, 2026.

Source: U.S. Federal Register (90 FR 3645); current text via eCFR, 26 CFR Part 301.