THE IMPORTANCE OF HIRING A QUALIFIED ACCOUNTANT TO MANAGE YOUR TAXES.

Your income tax is your life. Do you give your life into anyone’s hands?
We are pretty sure you don’t. And that is why we want to warn you.
Your tax data is your life, and if it is not correctly reported, your fate and possibly your family’s can be seriously jeopardized.
Think about it, choose well to whom you’re going to hand your documents and information for filing your income tax return in the United States.

How can you tell if a professional is qualified enough to take care of your tax life?
Regardless of where you are in the US, when it comes to “Income Tax”, any and all mistakes, from the simplest to those that the tax authorities may perceive as fraud, the responsibility lies solely and exclusively with the taxpayer, which means, your responsibility. So, before choosing who is going to do your tax return, it is good to understand what kind of professional is qualified to do it.
In the US there are two types of licenses available for chartered accountants:
 
CPA – CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT
Graduated and certified public accountant. His practice is limited to the state where he is registered. He has the competence and knowledge to prepare income tax returns, for both individuals and companies.
In an accounting office, he supervises and signs the taxpayers’ returns as the person legally responsible and accredited.
Most importantly, the CPA is the taxpayer’s representative at the IRS (the Internal Revenue Service) IRS (the U.S. Internal Revenue Service) for several matters, including audits. THE CPA, for example, is the only one who can sign the accounting reports of companies traded on the American Stock Exchange.

EA – ENROLLED AGENT
Like the CPA, the EA is also a trained and certified accountant. The difference with the CPA is in the breadth of practice. While the CPA is best suited for companies and individuals whose business is restricted to one state, the EA has an even broader scope because they have unlimited rights and can represent taxpayers at the IRS throughout the United States.

Another important point is the fact that the CPA and the EA are always being inspected by the IRS and by the accounting council equivalent to the one that exists in Brazil. These two professionals, in order to have active licenses, need to be always improving their skills and attending specific evaluations at the IRS.

SO STAY TUNED!
An accounting firm has several employees in the tax department, but only the CPA and the EA can represent you in the IRS. Another thing you need to know is that in the United States, anyone can establish an accounting office, which has put the taxpayer’s security at risk.
Employees who help prepare tax returns are called “Tax Preparers” and are given a Taxpayer Identification Number (PTIN). Some of these people end up misleading the taxpayer by using the PTINumber as if it were an “endorsement” of the work they offer, and end up giving the false impression that they are qualified to represent them, but they are not.

In a survey conducted by the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), an independent organization within the IRS, pointed out a situation that may greatly complicate the lives of those who need to declare income tax but are not familiar with the American system, which is to entrust non-qualified professionals with their income tax returns. Of the 681,845 PTIN number holders in the country, only 189,650 are CPAs and 53,000 EAs. The 467,263 are not trained, or even qualified, to prepare taxes.  Of the 270,646 licensed tax preparers, only 55,496 (*) have completed the 2022 season program registration for income tax preparation.

A Tax Preparer is not an accountant, and therefore has no responsibility for what is being written on your return, he is not allowed to sign your return, and most importantly, he is not allowed to and does not represent you at the IRS. The volume of erroneous tax returns and the total vulnerability of taxpayers has often resulted in inadvertent errors by preparers that have led to taxpayers paying more tax than they should or paying less and ending up facing actions and IRS enforcement.

The large number of unreasonable errors and frauds that have occurred in the last two years, along with the fact that the responsibility falls on taxpayers who have paid professionals who thought to be, but were not, qualified, has turned on a red light in the US Congress, which has classified the problem as an “alarming situation”.

And for this reason, the congressmen are discussing and should soon vote on the approval of legislation to establish minimum standards of competence for income tax preparers, to empower the IRS to regulate the profession and prevent unqualified people from continuing to prepare taxes and, mainly, to curb the opening of seasonal offices, which take advantage of the taxpayer’s lack of information to fraudulently and easily obtain important data such as the SSN (Social Security) and then sell them on the market, and thus end up hurting the taxpayer even more. By the way, another important factor to be considered concerns “Data Security”. Security”.
Accounting offices under the responsibility of CPA or EA are under constant surveillance to maintain secure systems to protect taxpayer data.
 
SO WATCH OUT!
It is your right, before hiring an accounting professional, to check the licenses of the firm or the professional who will provide the service.
CPA and EA data are public and are available on the IRS website. When hiring an accounting firm to manage your tax life in America, make sure there is a CPA or an EA on staff.
Not being able to count on these professionals is the same as not having a surgeon doctor inside a hospital’s surgical center. Think about it!
Now that you are aware of which professionals can accurately file your tax return and represent you before the IRS, don’t forget: before hiring a professional, make sure they are licensed and accredited to practice their profession.

This article was written by journalist Eleonora Paschoal