The biggest problem with the rules was the burden they imposed on smaller tax-preparation companies, said Hazel Bayers, co-owner of Small Business Financial Services in Keysville, Virginia, about 180 miles southwest of Washington.
The required classes included information on estates and corporations that she didn’t need, because her business consists of preparing returns for about 100 individuals and farmers. And, Bayers said, the fees added to her overhead costs and made her contemplate retiring after 25 years.
“They’re going to find more and more things to charge you on, so it’s going to be fee after fee after fee,” she said.
Accountants and tax-preparation companies such as H&R Block Inc. and Intuit Inc. supported the rules.
Intuit ‘Disappointed’
Intuit, which makes TurboTax, was “disappointed” by the ruling, Dan Maurer, senior vice president and general manager of the consumer tax group, said in a statement.
“We were all waiting for the result,” said John Ams, executive vice president of the National Society of Accountants in Alexandria, Virginia, and a member of an IRS advisory board. “We were all aware of it. I think even the IRS was surprised because there was no hearing.”
The suit challenging the regulations was filed by return preparers, who were assisted by the libertarian-leaning Institute for Justice.
The conventional wisdom would be that the IRS would appeal and seek to block the court order from taking effect during that process, Kerr said.
“It ain’t over ’til it’s over,” he said. “I certainly don’t believe it’s over yet.”