IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman told participants of the AICPA National Tax Conference last week that non-signing preparer employees of licensed tax practitioners will “likely” be exempt from the testing and continuing education of the preparer tax identification number (PTIN) requirements. He offered that additional guidance is expected by year-end. The Commissioner and other IRS executives at the conference clearly stated that these non-signing preparers will still need to register for PTINs and pay the user fees before preparing any federal tax returns in 2011.
We understand that the natural preference is to wait until the IRS guidance is released, but waiting comes with its own problems. It is sometimes difficult to obtain a PTIN by way of the online PTIN application system, and the telephone hotline is frequently nonresponsive. The IRS asserts that it takes four to six weeks for the paper application to process. CPA firms should weigh their options and the risk that they would have staff that are not qualified to prepare returns because of failure to have a proper PTIN by January 2011.
IRS Online PTIN Application Page
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