On Friday January 18, 2013, the US District Court for the district of Columbia, struck down the position that the IRS has the authority to regulate tax preparers.

What this apparently means is that the IRS will not be able to regulate practice before the IRS by so called unenrolled preparers (anyone who is not a CPA, Enrolled Agent or Attorney).   Unless the IRS appeals the decision and prevails or finds some alternative method of regulating the preparation of tax returns we should probably prepare ourselves for the return of the crooks.

It hasn’t been that long ago that we had the proliferation of fly by night tax return places popping up like mushrooms after a spring rain anywhere a sufficient quantity suckers could be found.  When tax season was over they were gone and any problems were the sole responsibility of the tax payer who was left holding the bag.

Many of us in the tax preparation industry had hoped that this industry could be infused with more professionalism and we were glad to see the IRS implementing the fairly limited requirements upon anyone who held themselves out to be tax preparers.  Everyone here at Tax On Wheels, LLC  still hopes the IRS will be able to bring some order and sanity to this process.  But in the mean time the public should probably be prepared for any idiot who can get their hands on a copy of TurboTax  to set up shop in a strip mall near you.  Let the buyer beware!

You may contact Tax On Wheels, LLC at 803 732-4288 if you have questions about this post.