Tax Lawyer's Blog

WebCPA reports that a New Jersey tax preparer was sentenced Wednesday to six months in prison for preparing false tax returns for numerous clients that resulted in an estimated tax loss to the federal government of between $30,000 and $80,000. Newark-based tax preparer Carlo St. Jean, 40, pleaded guilty midway through the trial to seven of [...]

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The Internal Revenue Service is moving into the second phase of its tax preparer regulation initiative by beginning next week to schedule the first competency tests for tax preparers. I used to be in favor of regulation of unenrolled tax preparers because anyone regardless of their education level, criminal background and skill level could hold themselves out [...]

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IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman has come out for tax simplification: Most taxpayers want simplicity. They want to pay what they owe, understand what tax benefits they are entitled to, and not get tripped up by the system. However, today’s Tax Code is anything but simple. It is so complex that it makes it hard for [...]

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WebCPA reports that the IRS increased the number of fraudulent tax refund claims it detected and stopped during the 2011 tax-filing season by 171 percent over the previous year: As of April 30, 2011, the IRS had identified 775,723 tax returns with $4.6 billion claimed in fraudulent refunds and prevented the issuance of $4.4 billion, [...]

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WebCPA reports that the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) is asking the Internal Revenue Service to reconsider some of the fees it plans to charge for competency exams and fingerprinting as part of its tax preparer oversight program. The new fees would apply to individuals who are required to take the IRS competency examination in [...]

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Last year I wrote a post titled IRS Disbars CPA for Relying on Client’s Income and Expense Numbers about a disturbing trend by the IRS to draft private tax preparers and force them to work as IRS auditors without pay. Here’s what I said: Tax preparers are advocates for their taxpayer clients and do not work for the IRS. Even [...]

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Yes, you read that correctly. The Journal of Accountancy reports that the IRS plans to start fingerprinting thousands of tax preparers as part of its oversight program and run the fingerprints through an FBI database: The IRS released more details on its tax preparer oversight program on Wednesday, and said registered tax return preparers would now be [...]

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