Is that tax preparer really qualified?
If you’re among the 60 percent of Americans who use a tax preparer to fill out your annual return, tens of thousands of them are vying for your business. But the industry is largely unregulated; only three states—California, Oregon, and Maryland—require licenses. Everywhere else, a person with little experience or education can call himself a tax preparer and set up a business. And even among credentialed professionals, skill levels and experience can vary. That’s what the National Consumer Law Center, an advocacy group in Boston, found out last year when it worked with organizations in Philadelphia and Durham, N.C., to conduct “mystery shopper” tests of storefront tax preparers. They were investigating practices related to “refund anticipation loans,” those high-interest, short-term loans secured by a taxpayer’s refund (see Just say no to refund loans, available to subscribers), to see whether fees and interest rates were clearly disclosed. But they stumbled onto an equally troubling
