Direct Renewal of PTIN Would Ease User Fee Costs

Submitter Information

Submitter Name: BARRY SIEGEL

City: SURPRISE

Country: United States

State or Province: AZ

• Docket ID: IRS-2020-0005

• Document Type: Public Submission

• Document Subtype: Public Comment

• Status: Posted

• Received Date: Apr 16, 2020

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Comment

To charge for the PTIN is an IRS scam. I was one of the first to obtain the PTIN with no cost to me. I dispute that the IRS has a cost to manage the PTIN program. If a person renews, the IRS computer data base should reflect the renewal without any human intervention. Secondly, the PTIN renewal should be done every 5-years at minimum. Then, the alleged costs to the IRS would be significantly diminished.

The PTIN is to aid the IRS and benefits the IRS as well as the preparer. Frankly, I am disconcerted that as a preparer without whom the whole tax return preparation and subsequent filing compliance would collapse should not be charged anything for doing what avails the US Government and the IRS.

If there was no fee when I first obtained my PTIN, why was a fee later implemented? I conjecture that the PTIN fee was a way some IRS bureaucrat concocted to earn the IRS some off budget cash. What is also suspect is that the alleged processor requires almost $15 to process the PTIN renewal — come on! The processor does nothing that would cost almost $15. Again, the PTIN renewal should be done by the preparer directly to the IRS preparer data base that would be updated by the PTIN renewal without human involvement.

I take umbrage that I would have to waste money to pay for the PTIN, which is another expense for nothing that one would endure under duress caused by the IRS. The IRS should aid the preparers who keep the whole system functioning versus always finding ways to subvert the preparers.