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The federal and state governments regulate a variety of industries that help with your money -- such as stockbrokers. However, when it comes to preparing taxes, the licensing is fairly sporadic. Only a few states have requirements. Kind of scary, huh?
Well, things are going to change. The IRS has announced that it will take the responsibility of regulating U.S. tax preparation companies, such as H&R Block (HRB) and Jackson Hewitt (JTX).
According to the IRS, firms will have to pay a registration fee, provide competency exams for preparers and mandate 15 hours of continuing education per year. All in all, these all seem reasonable -- and should help protect the interests of the public. Keep in mind that roughly 60% of Americans use paid tax preparers.
Firms like H&R block have already intensive training programs. So, if anything, these new regulations can make it harder for smaller firms to compete. Yes, it doesn't matter if the tax firm has one employee or many. The rules are for everyone. Although, so far, there are no proposed regulations for online tax preparation companies like Intuit (INTU).
Tom Taulli is the author of a variety of books, including the The Complete M&A Handbook
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-05-2010 @ 3:03PM
John Mudri said...
Will do nothing more than make the cost go up
1-05-2010 @ 3:12PM
Jeff said...
Are you kidding me ? The tax preparers should be regulating the IRS ! Thats just what we need, more power to the IRS ! How else are they going to collect the 12 Trillion dollars that O'Bama and his Democrats have spent.