Foundational pillar / check tax-outcome-claims
Guaranteed tax-outcome claims
Screens tax and accounting pages for guaranteed refunds, savings, or debt-elimination promises.
By Shimon Carroll, Founder, SEO for AI Agents · Last updated
What this check measures
Phrases such as "guaranteed refund", "maximum refund guaranteed", "eliminate your IRS debt", or "pennies on the dollar", quoted as evidence.
Why it matters
Treasury Circular 230 (31 CFR 10.30) bars tax practitioners from public communications containing false, fraudulent, coercive, misleading, or deceptive statements or claims, and the FTC Act bars deceptive advertising generally. Outcome guarantees are the most common way tax marketing crosses that line.
How we score it
A review prompt, not a legal verdict. Runs only on CPA firm audits. When the cue is missing the finding is medium severity at medium confidence, which lowers the foundational pillar by about 2.4 points. A pass is informational and never scores. Each finding names who should review it, quotes what we saw on the page, and cites the primary source. Where the page shows a US address we name the inferred state; otherwise the wording is state-agnostic.
Confidence-flag rules
MEDIUM: the check reads the visible page text, links, and JSON-LD directly, so what it quotes is exact, but wording can carry the same meaning in phrasing we do not recognise, and one page does not show the whole site.
Common mistakes
- Debt-relief language borrowed from lead-generation templates.
- Promising savings before knowing the client’s facts.
- Testimonials that imply typical results.
How to fix it
Describe the service and what depends on each client’s facts instead of promising an outcome, and have counsel review tax-resolution marketing.
Primary sources
- 31 CFR 10.30 (Treasury Circular 230), Solicitation
Legal Information Institute (e-CFR)
- 15 U.S.C. 45, Unfair methods of competition; unfair or deceptive acts or practices
Legal Information Institute (U.S. Code)
Changelog
- · New. This rule used to live only in the vertical configuration and never ran. It is now a registered review check with a cited primary source, framed as a prompt to review with a professional rather than a pass or fail legal verdict.