Treasury Inspector General's Focus On Problematic Preparers Supported By Sigma Tax Pro

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration's (TIGTA) report examines the return preparer coordinators of the IRS’s Return Preparer Office. This office is focused on reviewing the activities of paid preparers who consistently file inaccurate or false returns. The Treasury Inspector General reported favorably, "Return Preparer Coordinators effectively managed most of the paid preparer activities under their control and provided good audit leads for further enforcement actions." Nonetheless the report also suggests that more can be done and more timely responses to allegations of inappropriate conduct would be helpful. The TIGTA also confirms that most tax preparers are trustworthy but that increased vigilance is needed on those that do not abide by the rules.

The TIGTA's report also provides interesting data on the use of paid tax return preparers; in 2013, 81.5 million individual tax returns were prepared by paid tax return preparers which equals almost 60 percent of all individual returns filed. The types of misconduct most commonly found are defined as intentional manipulation of tax return information to generate excessive refunds for taxpayers, modifying tax returns after the taxpayers have signed them to steal the refunds, or using taxpayer identities to create fictitious tax returns to generate fraudulent refunds.

Sigma Tax Pro provides a full range of essential services for tax return preparers. This includes industry-leading software solutions as well as technical support, tax preparation support and client retention strategies. Sigma Tax Pro specializes in helping tax preparation firms expand their businesses, open new offices and increase their client base. Tax preparers can also become resellers of Sigma's 10400-CL software and increase their revenue during tax season.