Since this is the only forum I participate in which is open to tax laypersons, I'm posting an item which potentially affects consumers of professional tax preparation services.
This has to do with the IRS deadline of year-end 2013 for all paid preparers (not otherwise covered) to pass a competency exam and become Registered Tax Return Preparers (RTRP). The issue is what effect if any a drastic decrease in paid preparers would have on the tax preparation market (assuming the deadline holds, despite possible pressure from the storefront tax chains if it looks like they might have to shed massive numbers of seasonal employees).
Current data as of June 2012:
According to IRS, there are 260 vendor testing centers nationwide. (5 in SF Bay Area, which is one of top 5 or 6 metro areas, AFAIK)
It takes 3 hours/test.
Almost every weekday for the next 3 months is available at my nearest center. 3 time slots available each day. Not sure how many registrants per time slot are allowed, but as I recall when I took the SEE, there were about 10 desks at the test center.
This is probably one of Prometric's bigger contracts, so I see them doing what it takes to collect their fees.
68 weeks until 2014 (total less 10 weeks for holidays, etc) 340 weekdays 260 test centers 88,400 testing days 3 time slots per center per day 265,200 total time slots 2 test takers per slot (conservative)----------------------------------------------------
530,400 total availableSo at a moderate and steady pace, all provisional preparers could easily meet the exam requirement (or at least attempt the test) by the deadline.
However, the testing is off to a slow start, despite heavy IRS publicity.