Staff Reports
The Internal Revenue Service will be requiring all tax preparers to pass a test and register with the government next year, and that seems to be all right with most tax professionals.
Two weeks ago, the IRS announced the testing and registration would be needed for the country’s more than 1 million tax preparers. The government is also requiring continuing professional education for all preparers. The idea is to reduce fraud, errors and hold a preparer accountable if something were to be wrong on the tax form.
New York state is requiring tax preparers to test and be registered for this tax season, said Valarie Kruse of AAA Tax Service in the Town of Lockport. Kruse said she is in favor of the new regulations for tax preparers, defined as those who prepare more than 10 returns for a fee.
“It is a good idea; it’ll weed out the bad ones,” Kruse said.
The new regulations come after a six-month study by the IRS. And while the regulations aren’t in effect for this tax season, the agency said it was sending letters to 10,000 preparers from whom the IRS typically sees errors.
H&R; Block said their own regulations already exceed those of the IRS. Kathy Warblow of Jackson Hewitt said she was glad to see the regulations come to fruition after 14 years in the business.
“We welcome this,” she said. “We do extensive training and we do continuous learning throughout the year. So to have this will weed out those who aren’t doing a good job. This will help the industry instead of hurting it.”
The National Society of Accountants released a statement last week in response to the IRS proposed regulations for tax return preparers. The NSA represent 30,000 members who provide accounting, auditing, tax preparation, financial and estate planning, and management services to approximately 19 million individuals and business clients.
“The National Society of Accountants is strongly in favor of these proposed new IRS regulations, because we see a lot of problems in the marketplace,” said NSA President Robert L. Cross. “NSA members, who are experienced tax professionals, are often called on to fix the mistakes that unqualified tax preparers make. In fact, NSA asked the IRS to address this issue several years ago, and this is good news for taxpayers and qualified tax professionals everywhere.”
Kruse offered people one way to tell which preparers aren’t likely to be trusted. The IRS said about 80 percent of all taxpayers use a preparer to file their taxes.
“If the preparer does not put their name on the return, you don’t want them,” she said.
