Tax Lawyer's Blog

Sounds like I hit a nerve again. And I didn’t even think he read me anymore.

I can’t say I’m surprised by the reaction I got from Robert Flach, The Wandering Tax Pro, to my post Who is a Professional?. 

Anger, vitriol and childish name-calling have, sadly, become his modus operandi.

Here is my brief and significantly less emotionally charged rebuttal:

Is self-declaration of competence sufficient to confer professional status?

Robert Flach, an unlicensed tax preparer and tax blogger, calls my blog post offensive and me a “cafone” and a “pompous ass” (his favorite ad hominems for anyone who has the temerity to disagree with him) for writing it. 

He doesn’t realize it, but the self-congratulatory title of his post, “I AM A PROFESSIONAL!”, makes my point better than any ten posts I could write on the subject.

You see, Robert considers himself to be a professional not because he has achieved any predetermined (by a third party regulatory or licensing authority) level of education or because he is required to adhere to any set of objectively determined technical and ethical standards, but merely because he says he is.

This is completely illogical. If the word “profession” is to have any meaning at all it’s distinguishing characteristic must be that someone other than would-be members set the standards for entry. You don’t get to do it yourself. If you did, everybody would be a member of a profession which, of course, would make nobody a member of a profession.

Despite the indignant tenor of Robert’s post, I suspect that underneath all of his surface rage he knows that becoming a member of a profession requires much more than simply setting one’s own standards, meeting those standards and declaring oneself to be a professional.

If self-declaration were sufficient, why would one favor IRS licensing and regulation of tax preparers?

Robert is a staunch and vocal supporter of the IRS’s proposed regulation of unlicensed tax preparers. And I don’t blame him one bit. Competent tax preparers are tainted by the incompetent ones and a licensing and regulatory regime will elevate the status of the good preparers like Robert in the collective mind of the public.

That’s a good thing.

But Robert’s support for the regulation of preparers begs the following question:

If he believes that a person becomes a professional tax preparer merely by setting his own standards and declaring himself to be, why would he favor the implementation of a government regime charged with determining who amongst us are entitled to call themselves professional tax preparers?

Wouldn’t that be redundant?

A Little Prediction

When IRS preparer regulation is implemented (which I expect it to be) and Robert qualifies himself to prepare tax returns (which I anticipate he will) I have little doubt that he will join me in crying foul whenever someone who has not qualified themselves under that regime calls himself a “professional” tax preparer.

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