3rd Party Preparers Will Lose Privilege of Delivering Returns In Person to IRS

Some detail on this would be nice. How did you learn this? Where did you learn this?

And why would a preparer be hand delivering a tax return to an IRS Assistance Center? Preparers are supposed to be filing current year returns electronically. I can foresee a case where I might hand carry a prior year or amended return to the local satellite office so that I could get my copy date stamped to prove delivery. But I can't imagine carrying a current year return in.

Gene E. Utterback, EA, RFC, ABA

The info was posted yesterday on an internal IRS web site.

Beginning next year, tax preparers who do 10 or fewer returns do not have to file electronically. If a client objects, the preparer does not have to file the return electronically. So there is a market for hand delivery.

Apparently, there are a number of tax practitioners who, as a service, deliver their clients' tax returns directly to the IRS..

Presumedly, the IRS sees this as a waste of their own resources.

By the way, this new rule applies whether the return is prepared by a paid or unpaid third party.

I can, in the rare case that a return cannot be e-filed. However, I would suggest that one let the client do that.

The information came from a post to an internal IRS web page.

Preparers would hand deliver clients' tax returns to the IRS as a service to those clients.

Preparers of 10 or fewer returns will not be required to e-file. Preparers of any number of returns will not have to e-file returns of clients who opt out.

The new rule, by the way, will apply to all third party preparers whether they are compensated or not. It also applies to "runners" which I take to mean delivery services though I could be mistaken about that.

It seems the effect will be to require hand delivery of tax returns to be by the taxpayer him or herself.