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Ardent Listener
Administrator
USA
4841 Posts |
 Posted - 01/05/2010 : 11:29:15
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IRS to oversee those who prepare returns
Starting soon, the Internal Revenue Service will regulate preparers of federal income tax returns.
IRS plans to regulate tax preparers
The nation's roughly one million paid tax preparers will soon be regulated by the IRS, which plans to require competency tests and registration with the government.
The new regulations don't kick in this year, in part because of the size of the undertaking, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said Monday. But the agency will soon send letters to 10,000 preparers with a record of errors on returns. About 80 percent of taxpayers use a tax preparer or tax software to complete their annual returns. Some 55 percent of returns filed in Florida are prepared by someone paid to do so. Most are unregulated, unless they are attorneys, certified public accountants or agents who represent taxpayers before the IRS.
Tax preparers to face new regulation, IRS scrutiny
Tax preparers to face new regulation, IRS scrutiny
The IRS plans to require tax preparers to pass a test and register with the government to better police a largely unregulated industry used by most taxpayers.
The Internal Revenue Service says there could be more than a million people offering tax preparation services. Most offer sound advice, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman says, but many don't and the agency knows little about them. The new regulations, announced Monday, won't be in effect for the current filing season - individual tax returns are due April 15. But Shulman said tax preparers will be held to higher standards in future years as the IRS steps up its oversight to help reduce fraud and errors.
14,700 disclose offshore accounts
14,700 disclose offshore accounts
More than 14,700 U.S. taxpayers came forward to disclose billions in offshore bank accounts in 70 countries under a voluntary Internal Revenue Service program allowing most to avoid criminal prosecution as long as they pay what they owe, IRS officials said Tuesday.
A flood of people came forward in the last days before the amnesty program expired Oct. 15, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said. The final total far surpasses the number who disclose offshore accounts in a typical year -- about 100 -- and comes amid a broad U.S. crackdown on international tax evasion at Swiss bank UBS AG and other institutions. The total in taxes, interest and penalties collected from those in the voluntary disclosure program will be in the ``billions of dollars,'' Shulman said.
Don't play games with the IRS on tax credits
Don't play games with the IRS on tax credits
The IRS has an urgent message for would-be home purchasers: Make the most of the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit before it disappears Dec. 1 -- if you qualify.
But if you don't truly qualify, don't try to play games with the credit. The IRS already has 24 criminal investigations of suspected fraud under way around the country. It has executed seven search warrants and last month a tax preparer in Florida entered a guilty plea on federal charges of fraud in connection with the first-time buyer credit. He's awaiting sentencing and faces up to three years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. Congress' two versions of the first-time buyer credit -- a repayable $7,500 credit in 2008, and this year's more generous $8,000 nonrepayable credit -- have stimulated home sales nationwide. But they've also become irresistible temptations for dishonest taxpayers to cash in and claim bogus refunds.
How to pay for health care reform? Maybe these new taxes
How to pay for health care reform? Maybe these new taxes
WASHINGTON β Democratic leaders, worried that high price tags might derail their health care plans, are looking at a raft of ideas both old and new to salvage their legislation. Each proposal carries risks of its own, however, lawmakers and outside experts said.
Democrats in the House of Representatives, for example, acknowledge that they're looking at a value-added tax, which is used widely in Europe but has never gone anywhere in the U.S. Also on the table are a 2 percent surtax on the income of the wealthy and a hike in taxes on sodas. "The average American is already worried about government intrusion," said Mark V. Pauly, an economist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and the soda tax "sounds like the school nurse."
BY NIRVI SHAH
nshah@MiamiHerald.com
The nation's roughly one million paid tax preparers will soon be regulated by the IRS, which plans to require competency tests and registration with the government.
The new regulations don't kick in this year, in part because of the size of the undertaking, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said Monday. But the agency will soon send letters to 10,000 preparers with a record of errors on returns.
About 80 percent of taxpayers use a tax preparer or tax software to complete their annual returns. Some 55 percent of returns filed in Florida are prepared by someone paid to do so. Most are unregulated, unless they are attorneys, certified public accountants or agents who represent taxpayers before the IRS.
More people are turning to preparers or software for help with their taxes as the tax code becomes more complex, Shulman said.
``If we can have preparers fill out taxes right, the American people are well-served,'' he said. ``We're going to get accurate returns and collect the right amount of money.''
Concern about unscrupulous and untrained tax preparers has been long-standing, said Karen Reinagel, president of the Florida Society of Enrolled Agents, a group of tax professionals authorized by the federal government to represent taxpayers in dealings with the IRS.
``The taxpayer has no idea if they've got the proper education, if they've kept up with continuing education,'' Reinagel said.
People expect hair dressers and auto mechanics to have passed certain tests and acquired certain licenses, and they may assume as much about their tax preparers.
``But if they're not registered or licensed, they don't have to have an education,'' Reinagel said. ``They wouldn't think they would have to ask.''
The system will be paid for through user fees by tax preparers who register with the government and take the IRS competency tests.
Eventually, the IRS said, it will have a searchable database for taxpayers to consult before working with a preparer.
Shulman said his agency was already studying potential regulations for tax preparers before recent criticism about abuse of large tax credits offered through federal stimulus laws.
In a report last month by the inspector general for tax administration, as of July 25, about 74,000 taxpayers had wrongly claimed $504 million through the first-time home buyers tax credit that was expanded in last year's federal stimulus law. The credit pays $8,000 to first-time buyers and $6,500 to current owners if they buy a new home.
``Anytime there's a large refundable tax credit you're going to see fraud -- people trying to claim the credit where its not earned,'' Shulman said.
More than 100,000 Floridians had qualified for the tax credit as of last fall.
The EITC -- Earned Income Tax Credit -- for low-income individuals and families is also a source of fraud. The credit offers up to $5,600 to those who qualify.
Shulman praised that program as having lifted more people out of poverty than any program in the country.
In addition to the new regulations for preparers, IRS agents will visit thousands of tax preparers, sometimes without advance notice.
Some agents will pose as taxpayers to gauge what kind of advice a preparer offers. These visits will begin this year.
And the IRS has set up a task force to review tax preparation software and review businesses that offer refund advances.
The rules won't apply to volunteers who help low-income families and individuals prepare their taxes. But those who work at the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program already must pass a test before working on others' returns.
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Think positive. |
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PennySaved
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1720 Posts |
Posted - 01/06/2010 : 11:59:30
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| Personally, I wish they would just do away with the IRS and the current tax code. Why not just have a national sales tax? |
SELLING COPPER PENNIES 1.4X FACE SHIPPED......I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principles of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale Thomas Jefferson |
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IRS to oversee those who prepare returns
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