Well a federal judge in the Washington DC District Court has held that the IRS can’t regulate tax preparers after all. I am sure this will be appealed. See the article in Accounting Today by Michael Cohn that gives the details:
http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/IRS-Loses-Lawsuit-Challenging-Authority-Regulate-Tax-Preparers-65408-1.html?ET=webcpa:e6597:204199a:&st=email
So once again there is no regulation of tax preparers. I have seen some truly incompetent people who didn’t even know the tax laws prepare returns for people incorrectly and get paid for it. If CPAs and EAs have to be regulated, if attorneys and doctors have to be regulated, then tax return preparers should be too! This just lets these guys get away with murder again without consequences since there is no punishment. We don’t even know if the people who prepare taxes in the article that filed the lawsuit know what they are doing, and now they don’t have to take continuing education either? They were small preparers who said they couldn’t afford the continuing education costs to keep their RTRP (Registered Tax Return Preparer) in force. If you can’t afford it, then maybe you shouldn’t be preparing taxes! This is a definite victory for the small preparers who don’t sign the returns and have the taxpayer file a self prepared return.
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