IRS To Regulate Tax Preparers

Fox Business reported yesterday that the IRS is planning to regulate tax preparers.

This is an interesting bit of news for several reasons.

For one, tax preparation has always been a field that allowed for relatively easy entry, especially since would be tax preparers could purchase packaged software and open shop.

But on the cynical side, some studies suggest that 40% of the letters sent by the IRS are incorrect.  Who are they to judge competency in anyone?

When hundreds of accountants are tasked with doing taxes for a “sample family” and none can agree on the exact amount of taxes payable, how can anyone really be judged by their ability to master a tax code that even experts disagree upon?

But it also brings to mind the recent revelations about malfeasance by non profit groups like ACORN who worked closely with the IRS. How many people falsely received earned income tax credits for example?

Like most government regulations, I fear it will do more harm than good… keeping diligent people unnecessarily out of the field why the professional scam artists dodge the system.