Starting from this tax season onwards, the IRS has made it a requirement that all paid tax preparers must be registered and obtain a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN). The purpose of this monitoring is to ensure a high standard of professionalism, ethics and competency among tax preparers. About 60% of taxpayers currently engage the services of a tax preparer. However, in a recent report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), J. Russell George it was found that the IRS is inadequately equipped to monitor paid tax preparers to the degree they need and want to.

According to the TIGTA report, more needs to be done by the IRS and George does not expect the competency requirements to be fully implemented until 2014. This means there are many tax preparers who have not registered and whose competency might be questionable. The government has thus far allocated an additional $460 million to the IRS for its enforcement.

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