$50 to Register with US Government as Tax Preparer

Recently issued IRS proposed regulations include a $50 technology fee to register with the IRS as a tax preparer. Additionally, a smaller fee appears likely for online access. While the link to the actual proposed regulation was broken, it APPEARS that the fee is a one-time fee.

While this fee on the face is fairly innoculous, an equity question is raised. Traditionally, the IRS has limited direct preparer representation of taxpayers to self, spouse, business "partner", officers of a business or appropriate representative of estate or trust, direct preparer in some cases, enrolled agent, CPA or licensed attorney. Given that tax preparers who not EAs, CPAs or JDs will be paying this fee, equity suggests that they should now be eligible to directly represent taxpayers. Whether this should happen from a professional perspective is likely to generate similar debate to that raised by the testing requirements of the new taxpayer PIN registration--I look forward to seeing the tax bloggers comment on this issue.