26 U.S.C. § 7427
Section 7427 · Tax return preparers
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Wilkerson v. United States (1993)
Most recently applied in United States v. Elsass (October 2013)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
In any proceeding involving the issue of whether or not a tax return preparer has willfully attempted in any manner to understate the liability for tax (within the meaning of section 6694(b)), the burden of proof in respect to such issue shall be upon the Secretary.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Prior Provisions
A prior section 7427 was renumbered 7437 of this title.
Amendments
2007—Pub. L. 110–28 substituted “Tax return preparers” for “Income tax return preparers” in section catchline and “a tax return preparer” for “an income tax return preparer” in text.
Effective Date of 2007 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 110–28 applicable to returns prepared after May 25, 2007, see section 8246(c) of Pub. L. 110–28, set out as a note under section 6060 of this title.