IRS to start regulating paid tax preparers
By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press
WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service plans to start regulating paid tax preparers, requiring them to register with the government, pass competency tests and adhere to ethical standards…
Shulman said he hopes to have all paid tax preparers registered by the 2011 filing season. Preparers will be given about three years to meet competency requirements.
Click link above for complete article.
FBAR Filing: Tax Practitioners and Professional Responsibility
U.S. Taxpayers, who fail to file FBAR’s to disclose foreign bank accounts, may seek a reasonable cause exception based on their “tax preparer’s” failure to file the FBAR.
Tax Practitioners (Attorneys, CPA’s) must comply with the FBAR rules as part of their due diligence (as to accuracy) obligation under IRS Circular 230 (Section 10.22).
The FBAR (TD F 90-22.1) is not a tax return. The FBAR is an information report required under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) 31 USC 5314 (and related regulations CFR 103.24, 103.27). Related records are required under 31 CFR 103.24 and 103.32.
The Practitioners’ professional responsibility does not require that the Practitioner “audit” their client.
The Practitioner must:
1. Make reasonable inquiries in response to Taxpayer’s information of overseas accounts/transactions.
2. A Practitioner may rely on information provided by a client in good faith.
3. The Practitioner must make reasonable inquiries if information appears incorrect, inconsistent or incomplete.
IRS May License Tax Preparers to Help Close ‘Tax Gap’
By Ryan J. Donmoyer, Bloomberg.com
The Internal Revenue Service is considering registering or licensing paid tax preparers such as H&R Block Inc. and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. as part of a broad review of the way Americans file tax returns, Commissioner Doug Shulman said.
Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee today he is preparing a “comprehensive set of recommendations” that may include new regulations for preparers to help recover an estimated $290 billion in uncollected taxes. He later told reporters that may include a registration or licensing requirement.
Requiring paid tax preparers to register or become licensed would establish a national accreditation framework for the industry for the first time, with the goal of improving accuracy of tax filings and ending fraud that investigators say fleeces both taxpayers and the government.
“This is nothing less than a transformational shift,” Shulman said.
Sixty-one percent of individual tax returns are done by paid preparers, according to IRS Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, the chief ombudsman for U.S. taxpayers, who has recommended licensing of preparers since 2002.
“Untrained and unscrupulous preparers present a serious problem,” Olson wrote in a 2006 report to Congress.
Click link above for complete article.
