No more over your head return prep

[Pacun]

IRS to Match Return Preparation With Testing Under Preparer Regime

By Diane Freda

Publication date: 05/24/2010

The Internal Revenue Service will eventually check on whether the returns that tax preparers do fall into the category for which they have been tested,

Full report at:

http://www.bnasoftware.com/News_Articles/News/IRS_to_Match_Return_Preparation_With_Testing_Under_Preparer_Regime.asp

[jainen]

>>No more over your head return prep<<

In my opinion, the registration program is just intended to establish bureaucratic control over the industry. I expect the actual tests to offer minimal assurance of preparer knowledge. I think the analysis for "whether the returns that tax preparers do fall into the category for which they have been tested" will NOT provide any useful information about unskilled preparers. Instead, it will only help identify gaps in the testing program, that is, whether for example they need a test for payroll tax or Form 1120.

In my experience, that's the way bureaucrats think--the principal purpose of the registration program is to expand the registration program. If you read the quotes in the linked article carefully, you will notice that's pretty much all the IRS official had to say about it.