Licensing tax preparers does not insure that people are more competent. It's a revenue thing.... to charge a person a fee before they can perform a service. The lie is that people assume that a license person will perform a better job than an unlicensed person and that quality will be insured.
Look at the other professions:
A doctor gets his education in medicine and completes his residential and then tests out and gets licensed. Year after year he is required to renew his license..... why? to practice medicine legally: But it is his education and his skill and his ongoing hunger to maintain the current contact with continuing education which insures his level of competance and quality of practice and not the license. As far as proof of education...... his diploma and certifications are required when he applies for his license to practice...... Why shouldn't the same posted on his wall suffice for his patients that he has properly prepared? If the doctor kills his patients.... word spreads quickly and people stop attending. If the doctor is good.... no amount of year to year licensing will improve upon his skill....... but if he doesn't pay........ he's out of legal practice. If the doctor is getting senile or has substance abuse problems.... as long as he keeps his license renewed..... he is allowed to practice until and unless someone is able to challenge his competence.....successfully.
Many occupations are this way..... and most occupational and professional law was written by ...............guess who?
Lawyers!
Guess who doesn't have to have a license to practise their 'art'?
Lawyers!
Oh...... they may have to pass a bar exam to be recognized as a member of the bar or an official of the court........ However, any person without the pretense of being a lawyer, may represent another upon their request: In such case, the risk of competent counsel is shared and understood by the person being represented and the person who is willing to stand in the counselor's shoes.
Licensing people who have skills...... limits access to those who have license to practice..... and does not insure the quality of skills, nor the perfection in practice.
The best hope is simplify the tax code.........3/4ths at least should be trashed and the rest simplified. It should be written in laymans terms and consistent with terms defined in a commonly accessible dictionary. An uncomplicated return should not exceed the requirement of an 8th grade education to understand and negotiate. It is rediculous that even a complicated return..... with carry over losses, tax deferrments, capital gains/losses, tax credits, expense accounts, depreciation........ can't be understood and negotiated by a person with a college degree without having to consult a tax preparer: The fault is with the tax code and its complexities, and licensing folks doesn't insure that you will get what you pay for..... In fact, its more likely you'll pay more........ and the quality will remain the same.
Want more? Then go to a CPA. They are certified and licensed.... and anyone helping to fill out your tax forms for compensation is required to attest to honestly representing what you produced of your records and documents and your affirmations.
Licenses produce revenue: License do not insure competence.... only that a person has fulfilled the educational requirements and can take the tests.... the initial one to obtain the license: After that, the quality of continuing education units which a state may require for relicensure is made from an elective selection.... some which are more challenging than others..... but all intended to be passable to maintain the renewal requirements for CEU's. Licenses are both protective of professions by limiting and controlling competition..... from others who may be competent and qualified in all areas (except for obtaining a license) and a means of controlling practice. While the public believes licensing professional practices are protecting us from unscupulous charlatans... which they do but limited, they really do not..... cannot..... fund all the policing and investigating to insure that only the competent remain in practice.... or that all charlatans get caught. What a license does do.... it puts the acheivements, education, and skills, acquired by an individual to perform a service under the control of government to determined who can work and where. License also serve the confidence of unthinking and uninformed public into believing and accepting that a licensed person has a higher degree of competency and delivery of service without the necessity of proof, or recommendation of peers and customers..... and that peer review is in favor of the consumer..... which it is not. (In actuallity....peer review can be politically motivated.... and professionally protective and secretive of all but the most blatant of offenders.)
