Prior to the IRS Return Preparer Initiative, anyone could enter the tax return business. The lack of training or minimum qualifications for paid federal tax return preparers resulted in concerns that some ill-equipped tax preparers were making numerous errors costly to taxpayers and to the United States Treasury. Income tax laws in the United States are complex and change nearly every year. United States Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson, in her 2002 annual report to Congress, suggested legislation to register and regulate paid tax preparers. In 2006, the GAO testified that the agency secretly visited 19 different paid tax preparers. The agency found that all 19 tax returns were wrong to some degree and that only two preparers correctly calculated the proper refund amount. In 2008, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) followed up with a review of how Oregon and California, the only states to regulate tax preparers, addressed the issue. On June 4, 2009, Commissioner Douglas Shulman announced that the IRS would conduct a thorough review of the issues related to regulating paid tax return preparers.IRS News Release, IR-2009-57, June 4, 2009, IRS Launches Tax Return Preparer Review; Recommendations to Improve Compliance Expected by Year End
