Where does the IRS get the authority to do this? What an inept Congress we have.

Those 16,000 new IRS agents have to do something. Play cop.

Imagine how intrusive and what a waste of man power Obamibcare is. Tens of thousands of pages of regulations for insurance, businesses and individuals and not one cent of revenue. Just pure waste of talent, money and people´s time. At the US Goobernment, job killing is job number 1!

When will the IRS stand behind advice given by their employees? You can get advice but it´s not worth much if you get audited.

The truth is that Congress, over the years, has passed so many regulations that no one at the IRS can possibly know all of them. Of course, Obamacare has exacerbated the problem. I know a long time employee who purchases a computer program to prepare their tax return.

There is no way these independent tax return preparers know what they are doing and after they have completed the new course the IRS wants them to take they still will not know.

There has to be tax reform. Do away with all the regulations and start from scratch. Or, better yet, go to a flat tax.

Don´t blame IRS or Congress. If you voted for the present day elected politicians you are to blame.

Don´t blame Congress! Who do you think makes the rules and regulations? Many Congresses are to blame and the rules have piled up over the years.

A flat tax would be preferable to our current system. A fair tax, a modified national sales tax, would be better. The flat tax generates funds from reported income only. The fair tax generates funds from what is spent. In addition to those who report income, it also covers those who don´t report income: illegal aliens, big spending drug dealers and other high income criminals and tax evaders that include some members of both houses of Congress. And the currently depicted plan does include provisions to protect the truly impoverished from being unduly burdened. If properly worded, the enacting legislation would preclude adding any other national tax on top of it and, also, preclude Congress from arbitrarily increasing the tax rate.

There´s something very, very wrong when average [or even bright and motivated] citizens can´t possibly deal with filing a tax return without help from a third party [as "hired help" or via purchased software]. The same must be said of dealing with Medicare, Social Security, the VA -- when you need a professional representative for practically all such contacts, there´s no way to rationally argue that these agencies are subordinate to and/or intended to serve the citizen.

Clearly, they have other ["perhaps unstated"] objectives and priorities. Like: a. influence peddling; b. bureaucratic empire building; c. stretching-out cases to manufacture lots of wantonly-wasteful "work" hours for employees [who are members of gov´t unions which contribute to pols who protect and help build these same bureaucracies... hmmm].

Gotta go. Have to call Home Depot and see whether that load of fence rails came in....

What´s next? TurboTax? What will Timmey do?

Fair tax.

Couple of thoughts: When you get 3 different interpretations of the rules by talking to 3 different agents, its time to clear the deck and start over. I personally know a woman who owns an accounting business with a lot of clients who are themselves small businesses. Do the feds even begin to comprehend the problems their stupidity will cause when this goes into effect? It takes an accountant to keep up with these rules. Small businesses have no time for another full time job.

Make a note of it! At one second after midnight on January 1, 2013, The United States of America, formerly a representative republic, became a dictatorship.

I think they are trying to drive a lot of small business to bankruptcy.

If large business and government are the biggest employers, they can control people more easily. Big businesses, of course, are easier to control than millions of small businesses.

Few people realize the absurd complexity and endless lists of confounded laws- (one laws says "go" and the other says "stop")- in our tax code. It is all a matter of subjective destermination to decide if any tax payer has either cheated, made gross mistakes or paid properly. No one can say for sure! That´s why when there is an audit, the IRS nightmare is an appeal by a legitimate and informed tax attorney- also why just aobut every case is dealt with in arbitration, sometimes getting the IRS amount demanded whittled down to 1/100th of the original amount- no tax case, except for outright fraud and refusal to pay, can ever get through court- and most judges will even refuse to hear the case, even in Federal court!

Another industry takeover... Spplying a license fee & req´t will insure only WH selected firms will survive. Obozo picks winners to be exempt, remember ObamaCare waivers?

There goes my seasonal job as a receptionist at a small tax service business in our town. Thanks Obama!

The IRS has also passed a regulation that requires preparers to register, pay a fee, retain copies, and lists of returns prepared to be filed with the IRS, etc. Many casual preparers that offered tax preparation savings, if they did not have to do anything but prepare the return, are not going to bother. The cost of the IRS fees, CPE, tax software, copying expenses, etc. means you have to cover a $1,000 or more in costs before preparing a single return.

There is no defensible reason for forcing taxpayers to hire a tax preparer.
Simplify the taxes. Millions of lawyers and accountants go away. Everybody wins.

I have a feeling H & R Block lobbyists are behind this. Does this requirement include H & R employees????

Most industries have to get continuing education, and I think they should.

Get rid of IRS. The regulations are so out of hand, no one knows what they are talking about, especially IRS.

As far as H&RBlock, over the years I paid them hundreds of dollars for some really stupid people to sign my returns.