Return Preparer Issues: Penalties, Injunctions, Criminal Prosecution, and the OPR

General Description:

The IRS has increasingly looked to regulating tax return preparers as the first and best way to ensure taxpayer compliance. With expanded preparer penalties, optional continuing education and testing for return preparers, changes to Circular 230 (including new rules requiring supervising return preparers to institute procedures to ensure firm compliance with Circular 230), and the increased use of injunctions and criminal prosecutions against return preparers, those who do not know the rules (and how the IRS is using them) may find themselves in a very dangerous predicament. This course will focus on the laws and regulations available to the IRS regarding return preparers, and practical strategies return preparers can use to avoid trouble with the IRS and potentially losing their ability to practice.

Learning Objective:

After completing this course the participant will be able to:

• Analyze and apply the ethical and standard-of-care requirements for return preparers.
• Compare and contrast the different penalty provisions applicable to taxpayers and return preparers.
• Illustrate the different enforcement vehicles available to the IRS against return preparers and identify how to avoid falling under them.
• Analyze the authority of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), and how it does or does not apply to return preparers.

Instructors:

Brian F. Huebsch is a tax attorney with his own firm in Denver, 53 Tax Law PLLC. During his 20-year practice he has represented hundreds of taxpayers in resolving civil and criminal disputes with federal, state, and local taxing authorities, as well as representing members of the accounting profession in all manners of disciplinary proceedings and malpractice claims. He earned his bachelor's degree at the University of California Santa Cruz and law degree at the University of Denver College of Law. He is a sought-after lecturer for continuing professional education seminars and is a past adjunct professor at the University of Denver Graduate Tax Program.

This seminar is also scheduled for: