Time to pick the proper tax pro

The full 2014 tax filing season officially opens in 10 days. Are you ready?

If this is the year that you finally hand off your tax hassles to a professional, you'd better start your search. Good tax preparers are quickly booked.

And you need to make sure you hire the tax pro who's best for your filing circumstances.

Sorting through tax pro options: Finding the right tax help is a lot like the whole tax system. It's not a simple process.

In fact, today's Daily Tax Tip offers multiple pieces of tax preparer advice: 5 tips to picking the perfect tax pro.

Among your choices are franchise tax preparation firms, accountants (including CPAs), Enrolled Agents, attorneys or the mom and pop tax office down the street. Each has something for some filers, but not necessarily for every filer. So make your choice carefully.

That's an interesting combination of services. Would you get your tax return done here? Check out all tax preparers carefully.
(Photo by NoHoDamon via photopin cc)

That's the word not just from me, but also the Internal Revenue Service. For years, the agency has been trying to set up a system under which it register and test tax preparers to help ensure that they meet a minimum competency level.

It has been, and continues to be, a contentious proposal that now is pending in federal court. Three tax preparers filed suit challenging the IRS authority to regulate them. They won the first round. Court watchers say that the IRS outlook for approval of its plan is dim based on the latest appeals hearing. 

Support from the top: New IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, however, supports the effort. In his first press conference after being sworn in Jan. 6, he said the IRS would press ahead with efforts to regulate tax-return preparers even if it loses in court.

Requiring paid preparer certification and minimum continuing education would bolster taxpayers' confidence in the tax services they buy, Koskinen said.

And many tax preparers, he noted, would voluntarily accept IRS certification and testing so they could use it as a marketing tool.

"Win or lose in the court case, we ought to be able to move forward on that," the new commission said. "The fact that it's tied up in court shouldn't keep us from moving forward even on a voluntary basis."

That approach also has been suggested by the National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson.

Some states do oversee tax professionals. If you live in California, Maryland, Oregon or, new this filing season, New York, you'll get some help in evaluating your potential tax pro.

The rest of us elsewhere in the country, though, will have to do our own vetting of any tax preparer we hire.

So get to work now on finding the person who'll help you get your taxes done this year.

You also might find these items of interest:

• Checking out your tax professional
• House bill would give IRS authority to regulate tax pros
• More tax professionals (including bloggers) formally support
  legal challenge of IRS' effort to regulate tax preparers

Comments

[Jill]

In my Milwaukee neighborhood we have one "tax preparer" who converts her office to a retail clothing store from May through December. And we have another one that used to be a well known porn shop. His "sign" is really a removable banner featuring a hand holding out a fan of $100 bills that glitter and sparkle.

And you would not be-leeve the traffic these places get!!

[Brian Huber]

A multitude of phony tax preparers causes too many people to prepare their own tax returns that include matters unfamiliar to them. Individuals with extensive business interests, investments, or rental properties make the most mistakes. Although these people might have had easier tax returns to self-prepare in the past, new or expanded circumstances call for the expertise of an experienced CPA specializing in tax or a pro who has passed the Enrolled Agent exam. Using these experts does not guaranty quality service, but it certainly helps. Information about the qualifications of Enrolled Agents is available at Fast Forward Academy. I'm hopeful that an increasing number of honest and dedicated people will pursue this certification as a commitment to the tax business -- rather than operate something like the XYZ Tax Preparation and Screen Door Company.