Thursday, August 26, 2010

A Room With Two Views

Editorial from WSJ (gated), titled "The IRS Targets Incompetent Tax Preparers: That's The Good News. But the Agency is Going Overboard."

The article describes the new regulations to be unnecessarily complicated and burdensome for the more "legitimate" establishment.

I would like this to be a taste of their own medicine. Tax preparers are among the special interest groups that pressure for a complex and evolving tax code so that they keep plenty of business. However, it is more likely that this will devolve into a bootlegger and baptist story.

Finally, I would like to suggest that another way of making tax preparers less incompetent is to make the tax code less complicated, thereby reducing the need for specialists.

1 comment:

KipEsquire said...

The "more legitimate establishment" is exactly the cabal pressing for licensure.

Remember: A burden that you can afford but your competitor can't is no burden at all.