WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service expects an online application system for paid tax preparers to receive Preparer Tax Identification Numbers will go live in the middle of next month. Under proposed regulations, these professionals must obtain or reapply for a PTIN and pay a user fee of $64.25 each.
The fee includes $50 per user to pay for outreach, technology, and compliance efforts. The other $14.25 per user would go to a third-party vendor that will operate the online system and provide support. The contract for that service has not been awarded.
If the regulations are implemented, all paid preparers must use the new system to obtain a PTIN, including those who already have such a number, although they will generally be reassigned the same PTIN. The current PTIN system will come to an end on Monday, August 22. Preparers such as CPAs, who are not subject to new testing and continuing education requirements, must also apply.
Among other IRS proposals are regulations that would extend current regulations that apply to attorneys, certified public accountants, enrolled agents and other specified tax professionals to all tax return preparers, including currently unenrolled tax return preparers. The IRS also wants to clarify the definition of practice, as well as to establish a new registered tax return preparer designation and the eligibility requirements for becoming a registered tax return preparer.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
