Practitioners Beware: The IRS Intends To Give Your Personal Tax Returns Special Scrutiny
The IRS has recently announced that all accountants, attorneys, enrolled agents and others who file IRS Form 2848 to act as a Power of Attorney on behalf of their clients will automatically undergo a tax check by the IRS.
Michael Chesman, director of the IRS Office of Responsibility, stated at the October, 2008 Tax Executives Institute Annual Conference: “One of the issues that we take very seriously for tax practitioners is that a tax practitioner timely files and pays his or her own taxes.” As a result, the IRS has instituted this new check to ensure that each tax practitioner is in compliance with his or her personal obligations to pay federal tax obligations and file returns. Chesman also stated that the “approach will now soon start applying for anybody who does a power of attorney.”
Therefore, if you file a new Form 2848 with the IRS, and are listed as an agent on that form, you should assume that the IRS will automatically check into your personal tax return filings and payments. While we assume that most tax practitioners are timely reporting and paying their own taxes, they should be aware of this new and special scrutiny.
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