2008 Taxpayer Attitude Survey

I was reviewing the 2008 Taxpayer Attitude Survey published by the IRS Oversight Board and noticed a couple if interesting items I wanted to share. In 2008 almost 89% of taxpayers surveyed indicated it was not acceptable to cheat while preparing their tax returns, this is up 5% over the 2007 rate and is the highest rate achieved in the last ten years.  Also, in the 2008 survey, 67% of respondents indicated “Everyone who cheats on their taxes should be held accountable”.

 

A couple of interesting questions were asked about tax practitioners:

 

1.       Currently, not all paid preparers of federal tax returns are subject to regulation, either for competency or ethical behavior. Would you say it is very important, somewhat important, not very important, or not at all important that tax preparers be required to meet standards of..

 

·         Competency in order to enter the tax preparation business

·         Ethical behavior in order to enter the tax preparation business

 

Only 73% of respondents felt it was very important to meet the standard of competency in order to enter the tax preparation business and only 76% of the respondents felt it was very important that tax preparers meet standards on ethical behavior in order to enter the tax preparation business.

 

2.       If you were to choose a paid preparer to prepare your federal tax return, how much influence would each of the following factors have?

 

Only 56% of respondents felt they would be influenced if the tax preparer was subject to regulations or licensing by a state or federal government entity.

 

Only 42% of respondents felt they would be influenced if the preparer is subject to regulation or licensing by an industry association.

 

You can view the full survey at http://www.treas.gov/irsob/reports/2009/IRSOB_2008-TAS.pdf.

 

Robert K Minniti, CPA, CFE, Cr.FA, CFF, MBA

www.minnitiaccounting.com

www.linkedin.com/in/robertminniti

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