The American Institute of CPAs today continued its push to get the Internal Revenue Service to ease the adoption of mandatory e-filing by changing the threshold for tax preparers who must efile from a minimum of 100 returns to 200 returns. That was one key recommendation in the testimony by Kathy Petronchak, vice chair of AICPA's IRS Practice and Procedures Committee, at an IRS hearing last week.
The AICPA is calling for the IRS to be more flexible in implementing mandatory e-filing program because final regulations may not be issued until the middle of tax season. That would leave preparers without clear guidance in the interim. The AICPA also urged the IRS to phase in the program over three years, as as recommended by the IRS Electronic Tax Administration
Committee's 2010 Annual Report to Congress, instead of over the two years currently planned.
Other recommendations included greater flexibility regarding undue hardship claim waivers, client opt-out rules and a longer period of time in which to correct errors with returns that are not initially accepted by the IRS's computer systems because of technological issues.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind