IRS Disclosures about EAs

[erchess]

I received a troubling letter from the IRS. As I understand it they intend to start providing my name and address to providers of continuing education and to professional organizations my name, address, and enrollment status. Short of resigning as an EA is there anything I can to do prevent this?

[Bees Knees]

I got the letter too. IRS has always done that. If you didn't like being on everyone's mailing list, you had to read the fine print and check some box for them to take your name off the list. As I understand it, you no longer have that option.

Personally, I don’t mind getting on their mailing lists as I welcome new ideas on what products to purchase.

[Luis Mopeo]

It's the Freedom of Information Act. The theory is that if you get a license from the federal government, the public has a right to know who you are. This allows people to verify your credentials.

Makes sense to me.

[Larmil]

I use my home address with OPR

It's the Freedom of Information Act. The theory is that if you get a license from the federal government, the public has a right to know who you are. This allows people to verify your credentials.

Makes sense to me.

so I will change the address to my office address. The office gets a lot of junk mail.

Larmil

[erchess]

What I may do

The Post Office used to have a form one could fill out that would let them trash bulk mail instead of delivering it to you. I may exercise that option. But the idea that someone can look me up by my name and get my address still gives me a chill. And since my only office is in my home, I don't know what else to do. I suppose that I could get a PO Box and give it to the IRS but then I would need to check it every few days.....well as you can see I am not sure what I will do but I am still very concerned about this disclosure of my information and I may yet give up EA.

[Luis Mopeo]

The Post Office used to have a form one could fill out that would let them trash bulk mail instead of delivering it to you. I may exercise that option. But the idea that someone can look me up by my name and get my address still gives me a chill. And since my only office is in my home, I don't know what else to do. I suppose that I could get a PO Box and give it to the IRS but then I would need to check it every few days.....well as you can see I am not sure what I will do but I am still very concerned about this disclosure of my information and I may yet give up EA.

Get a P.O. box.

Do you own a home? If you want a real chill, go online and look up your address in your county's property section on their website. Chances are that all the information from your property tax statement is accessible to anyone with a computer. When you bought, what you paid, assessed value, improvements.

That information has always been available down at the county building. Public information. It's been like that since about 1200 BC. Now it's available online. Nothing new except it saves a trip downtown.

It's fairly impossible to be anonymous. Especially if you have a license granted by the government. I want to be able to verify licenses for stockbrokers, doctors, contractors, insert name here. Part of being able to verify everybody else means that you get verified too.

[Bees Knees]

That information has always been available down at the county building. Public information. It's been like that since about 1200 BC. Now it's available online. Nothing new except it saves a trip downtown.

My abstract from my old house in South Minneapolis says the property was first homesteaded in 1850 by John Lennon.

I didn’t think he was that old.

[ChEAr$]

Y'all read the letter again.

It says names, data will be provided to CPE providers, but NOT to software companies,
suppliers, etc.

No objection here.

[Black Bart]

Doncha think maybe

...I am still very concerned about this disclosure...and I may...give up EA.

you're overreacting just a tad, e.c.? You're seriously considering throwing in the towel and giving up the EA license that you (and many others here) sweated blood to get? Over what? I got one of those letters too -- it's a routine notice that your name and address may be furnished to salesmen or telemarketers, just like it is every time you buy anything with a credit card at a store or online. It's nothing! Nobody's putting out a contract on you and coming to Weaverville to make the hit. Take it easy and get a grip.

[veritas]

Get a P.O. box.

Do you own a home? If you want a real chill, go online and look up your address in your county's property section on their website. Chances are that all the information from your property tax statement is accessible to anyone with a computer. When you bought, what you paid, assessed value, improvements.

That information has always been available down at the county building. Public information. It's been like that since about 1200 BC. Now it's available online. Nothing new except it saves a trip downtown.

It's fairly impossible to be anonymous. Especially if you have a license granted by the government. I want to be able to verify licenses for stockbrokers, doctors, contractors, insert name here. Part of being able to verify everybody else means that you get verified too.

For a bigger chill go to google maps and look at your home and neighborhood. I told a friend about it and he looked up his bosses address to show him. His boss did not recgonize the car in his driveway.

[sea-tax]

For a bigger chill go to google maps and look at your home and neighborhood. I told a friend about it and he looked up his bosses address to show him. His boss did not recgonize the car in his driveway.

Opps that wife has a lot of explaining to do. Would love to be a fly on that wall.

[erchess]

I only over react ten or twenty times a day

but seriously I don't do much representation so I am not at present seeing a lot of value to my EA. When I worked for other people, EA was a real drag because it meant I was expected to be able to research on my own answers to questions that the real wheels in the firm had previously given me off the tops of their heads. Now that I am on my own I can decline a return if think that I cannot happily do a good job on it. However, I have recently demonstrated the skill of climbing down from a high horse and I may do it again and get a box at a PO or an MBE. The downside is that I would have to check the box at least a couple times a week because anything the IRS had for me as a tax professional as opposed to me as a taxpayer would go to the box.

I will freely admit that with all the info that is already available about me on the internet and elsewhere, the added security risk from what the IRS is doing is too small to worry about. However, I don't like the idea of junk mail even from potential customers, much less professional organizations and cpe providers. (Think about it - what sort of client contacts the IRS to find a taxpayer's advisor? Would they ask the judge the prosecutor or the other side's lawyer to recommend a lawyer for them?) And as for people being able to verify that I am an EA, that's a good idea but there has to be a way that someone who had my business card could verify that I am an EA but could not obtain a list of all the EAs in a given area.

[Black Bart]

We've all got our reasons for

...I don't do much representation so I am not at present seeing a lot of value to my EA...

worrying about what's serious to us even if maybe not to some others and if it's enough for you, then that's sufficient.

However, you might want to think about that bill they had in Congress recently to regulate tax preparers. I don't know what the status of it is right now, but my understanding of it is as proposed was that unlicensed preparers (anybody other than EAs/CPAs/attorneys) would have to take a test every year to keep doing taxes. Now that, would be a real pain in the neck.

[Uncle Sam]

Non 230 Practitioners

My understanding about that law was that current non 230's would have to take a one time exam. The LICENSE RENEWAL would be like EAs - continuous.
No such thing as CONTINUOUS testing.

[erchess]

However, you might want to think about that bill they had in Congress recently to regulate tax preparers. I don't know what the status of it is right now, but my understanding of it is as proposed was that unlicensed preparers (anybody other than EAs/CPAs/attorneys) would have to take a test every year to keep doing taxes. Now that, would be a real pain in the neck.[/QUOTE]

When I worked for a certain storefront firm I took a timed exam every year and for some years it was a closed book exam. Now I do all my CPE without sitting in front of an instructor so every course has an exam. I am really not worried about another exam that all tax professionals have to pass because honestly the system would not work from the taxing agencies' points of view if more than 3% of preparers were unable to prepare.