I recently picked up a business card that belonged to a tax preparer who I do not know. However, under his name it said “Confidential, professional, integrity”. I would agree with this person that these are very important qualities in a tax preparer. After all, you are giving all of your personal information to this person, so I would hope that the tax preparer would have the good sense to keep it confidential. You are entrusting this person to use all of this confidential information in an appropriate way, so one would hope that they would have the professionalism, integrity and knowledge to use it appropriately. I give this person credit for at least understanding that these things are important.
I do not know this person. This person may be the most confidential, professional and virtuous tax preparer who has ever walked the face of this Earth. This person may also be a scam artist. I do not know. I was working in my office late, and getting a little punchy, so I decided to see what I could find out. The first thing I did was check his website. It did not exist. I do not know what to think about that, but it is probably not a positive. I Googled him.
Not very much came up, other than his own social media. However, I was able to ascertain that he has a PTIN number, which is a good thing. Every professional tax preparer is required to have a PTIN number. I found this information on a private website which lists people who have PTIN numbers. You can pay them a premium and write about yourself. He did describe himself as being “an Internal Revenue Service registered tax preparer”. This is true, but a little bit misleading. Since the Internal Revenue Service is the organization that issues PTIN numbers, he is registered with them. They know his name, address and phone number. However, to the extent that being “registered” with the Internal Revenue Service implies being licensed, that is misleading.
The Internal Revenue Service has tried to change the rules to put an education requirement on people getting a PTIN number. The Internal Revenue Service has tried to change the rules so that they can require people to take a test in order to get or keep a PTIN number. However, the Internal Revenue Service’s efforts were struck down in court. As a result, the mere fact that a person has a PTIN number does not mean that the Internal Revenue Service has verified that they are a professional in any way. In terms of integrity, the Internal Revenue Service only determines that the person has passed a criminal background check. Other than the fact that this person does not seem to be an attorney, CPA, or enrolled agent, I could not find out anything else. This is the basic problem with all non-professional tax preparers. Getting information on them is not possible because they do not have a “license” in the traditional sense. This is why the IRS and its tips on how to choose a tax preparer encourages people to stick with enrolled agents, CPAs, and attorneys, and specifically suggests that you inquire about the tax preparer’s “representation rights”. Basically, the IRS gives its highest level of representation rights to enrolled agents, CPAs, and attorneys. That is because we have the training and the professional credentials that simple tax preparers lack. As such, an answer of “I have the highest level of representation rights” means that you have one of the only three credentials the IRS recognizes. Anything less means that you have never been tested.
I am an attorney. You can go to the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers website and look me up. Not only can you see that I am an attorney, but you can see that I have practiced law for twenty-seven years and have managed to stay out of trouble. You can see that I am insured. Similarly, with CPA’s you can go to their licensing board and get information on them. This information is not a lot, but it is something. It should tell you that I have a certain level of integrity and a certain level of professionalism that is at least acceptable. You can come by my office and see how well established I am, and realize that it is because “confidential, professional, integrity” are things that are not ordinarily bragged about, but are merely a part of the office’s DNA. In fact, as an attorney, I am required by my licensing board (as opposed to my own common sense and good conscience), to keep all your material confidential. What is more, everything you tell me is privileged. Attorney client privilege applies to me as a tax preparer, as much as it applies to me in any other case. Simply put, on all of these issues, I am governed by rules that I can verify that I have followed completely throughout twenty-seven years of practice. I do ask every client who comes into my office to trust me, but I do not ask anybody to trust me blindly.