The hearing originally announced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) to mark up an original bipartisan bill to curb identity theft and tax refund fraud on today, Wednesday, September 16, has been postponed. The bill to be marked up included a number of provisions that were a part of Hatch and Wyden’s Tax Refund Theft Prevention Act of 2014, as well as additional measures from Committee members.
The proposal, as written, would provide the Department of the Treasury and the IRS the authority to regulate “all aspects of Federal tax practice, including paid tax return preparers.” For tax professionals, that means that preparer tax identification numbers (PTIN) will remain in play: tax professionals who prepare returns for compensation will have to maintain a valid PTIN. It was also expected to signal the return of exams and continuing education credits for tax preparers.
Yesterday, the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) weighed in on the proposal. The AICPA expressed several concerns about the proposal, specifically offering an alternative standard for the use of PTINs and raising worries over potential marketplace confusion by taxpayers regarding tax preparer qualifications.
The concerns of the AICPA might have found an ear as the hearing did not happen as planned. According to a spokesperson for Sen. Hatch:
At the request of members, the Committee is working through additional technical changes to the legislation. Chairman Hatch will reconvene the markup at a later date, once the bill is finalized.
I’ll keep you posted.
