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Published March 1991 | public
Journal Article

Equilibrium Enforcement and Compliance in the Presence of Tax Practitioners

Abstract

Professional income tax preparers account for over half of all individual income tax returns filed and an even greater proportion of complex returns filed (Jackson and Milliron). Of these preparers, a significant proportion are qualified to represent clients before the Internal Revenue Service. The American Bar Association Commission on Taxpayer Compliance refers to these individuals as tax practitioners: "Like preparers, practitioners can prepare and sign returns, but the term is used to distinguish them from preparers who cannot represent clients during Internal Revenue Service audits and other enforcement actions" (56). Practitioners can provide a variety of services in addition to tax preparation; they "are often consulted by taxpayers facing audits, may accompany or represent clients during the audit itself, may participate in appeals of audit decisions within the IRS and in court, and may negotiate tax payment arrangements" (Kinsey:1). Practitioners can also play a role in identifying strategies for minimizing tax liability (Klepper and Nagin).

Additional Information

© 1991 by Oxford University Press. This paper is a revision, extension, and substantial redirection of "Tax Practitioners and Tax Compliance," Social Science Working Paper No. 666, California Institute of Technology, March 1988. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of National Science Foundation Grants SES-8903157 (Reinganum) and SES-8902545 (Wilde), and thank two referees for helpful comments.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023