Whatever the final details of moves by the Internal Revenue Service to regulate tax preparers, most in the industry have concluded that there's going to be a large demand for new continuing education courses. That will stem from the IRS requirement that those preparers by the requirements covered must take 15 hours of CPE.

Intuit has added a quick input screen to ProLine Tax Online, the Internet-based tax preparation product now going through its first tax season. The company said the screen enables preparers to profile clients by answering simple questions. The system then brings up only forms common to clients with that profile.

WASHINGTON —Taxation issues in the telecommunications and retail industries, which affect nearly all taxpayers in those markets, have been chosen by the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department for the development of guidance under the IRS’s Industry Issue Resolution program. Read more...

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...