Question Your Tax Preparer

We all dislike doing our taxes and many of us use taxpayers to do it. Well, you need to seriously question your taxpayer. Why? The IRS reported 1 in 8 failed to register with the agency. 

One of the big criticisms of the IRS is that it put in place a program long ago that pretty much let every Tom, Dick and Harry hang out a shingle to do tax work. Oh, they couldn’t call themselves CPAs, but they could be tax preparers or enrolled agents. This resulted in all kinds of quality problems with taxpayers being the one’s who usually ended up on the wrong end of the stick. 

After year of a never ending chorus of complaints, the IRS finally agreed to require tax preparers to register. The Agency suggested it would make no real difference while critics felt it would weed out the incompetent preparers. 

Well, guess who was right. 

The IRS is reporting that no less than 1 out of every 8 tax preparers failed to register with it for the first year of the program! Keep in mind this includes CPAs who would file at a 100 percent rate.

These numbers are utterly shocking. They basically state that 1 in 8 tax prepares out there don’t want the IRS to know who they are. Wow. That is certainly going to build up confidence with consumers!

So, why would a tax preparer not want to register with the IRS? Well, they could be a complete fraud of course, but this would be pretty rare. No, I think the big problem is that when you register, you must pass a basic competency exam. Those who worry they can’t, obviously didn’t register so they wouldn’t be found out!

So, did your tax preparer register with the IRS? Have you asked? I think it might be a good move on your part to find out whether they did or not. The answer will go a long way to establishing whether they are credible or not, something you probably want to know before the IRS comes looking for you because of a strange tax return.