why shouldn’t tax practitioners be regulated? ask congress.
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what do lawyers, cpas, truck drivers, and beauticians have that many tax preparers don’t?
certification.
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or, to use other words, proven competence. the tax preparation industry is a mixed bag of highly skilled and credentialed professionals, less skilled newbies trying to learn the trade on the job, and charlatans skilled in not much more than ripping off the unsuspecting or, at best, doing a slapdash job.
ugly results
the irs receives some 160 million individual tax returns each year. the majority are prepared by someone who got paid to do it.
but do the “professionals” do it right? not necessarily. numerous studies have found that non-credentialed preparers routinely prepare inaccurate returns. the results are ugly all around.
• taxpayers pay for shoddy work, often end up paying more than they should, sometimes suffering the wrath of the irs.
• competent practitioners get underpriced by incompetents.
• the irs goes to great effort and expense to correct inaccurate returns and collect overdue taxes from well-intentioned taxpayers.
evidence of incompetence
the problem is serious. here are some of the few studies that have looked into practitioner incompetence.
• in 2006 the government accountability office sent undercover auditors to 19 offices of national tax prep chains and had them prepare returns. of the 19, 17 were done wrong. in five cases, the hypothetical taxpayer would have received almost $2,000 in unwarranted refunds. in two cases, the taxpayer would have overpaid by $1,500.
• in a similar study in 2014, the gao again found errors on 17 out of 19 returns.
• in 2008, the treasury inspector general for tax administration sent undercover auditors to 12 commercial franchises and 16 small, independently owned tax prep offices. all the preparers were non-credentialed. of the 28 returns, 61 percent were prepared incorrectly. of the seven returns that involved earned income tax credits, none of the preparers exercised the due diligence required by the u.s. tax code.
• in 2008 and 2009, the new york state department of taxation and finance conducted nearly 200 targeted covert visits. it found “an epidemic of unethical and criminal behavior” that resulted in 20 arrests and 13 convictions.
• in 2006-2008, the irs conducted a study to measure compliance with eitc requirements. it found that unaffiliated/unenrolled/non-credentialed prepared were responsible for “the highest frequency and percentage of eitc overclaims.” the overclaims averaged almost 40 percent.
a security issue
the irs has tried to mandate preparer certification, but its first attempt, in 2011, ended up rejected by a u.s. district court.
unable to mandate competence, the irs created a voluntary “annual filing season program. non-credentialed preparers who participate must meet specific requirements, including 18 hours of continuing education. trouble is, they don’t have to participate. predictably, most non-credentialed preparers don’t bother.
the problem goes on beyond competence. the irs wants to allow preparers to have access to taxpayers’ information through online accounts. for obvious reasons, the security risks here are enormous.
competence and security are two different issues, of course. but the irs believes that trained, certified practitioners will be vested in the system enough to be reluctant to risk unethical or illegal actions.
as far as the courts are concerned, one big, decisive factor is whether tax preparation can be characterized as “practicing” before the irs. if it is, the irs office of professional responsibility can have oversight authority and the power to impose sanctions.
the 2006 district court, however, said that “mere” preparation isn’t “practicing before.” only congress can change that. an amendment to title 31 section 330 of the u.s. code could allow the secretary of the treasury to establish minimum standards for federal tax return preparers, which would be a very good idea.