Proposed requirements for professional tax preparers hold out the possibility that professionals might be required to pay for applying for and obtaining identification numbers, the PTINs that are a key part of new regulations proposed by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS estimates that the requirements would affect as many as 1.2 million tax preparers, with about 70 to 80 percent of these employed in businesses that earn less than $8.5 million each annually  Read more...

The Refund Anticipation Loan business isn't going away but it will become lot tougher on tax preparers as banks implement policy standards set by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that will guide their relationships with preparers. Preparers will be subject to back ground checks, monitoring of their practices and also face the development of a mystery shopper program at preparer locations that the regulators see as necessary to ensure fair fees and practices. The agency also called for training via an annual certification process.

Other than the fact that the number of tax returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service are down by 2.9 percent through March 12 and that two major preparation chains shared in that hit, the 2009 tax season looks like a success in one respect--tax software has worked even if a lot of taxpayers haven't, the major factor in the filing decline.