Sagit Leviner (Ono Academic College, Israel) presents Bridging the Gap Between Tax Theory and Reality: The Story of Tax Return Preparers at the Hebrew University Law School today as part of its Tax Law & Policy Colloquium. Here is the abstract:

This paper brings together the theoretical analysis of tax enforcement and the corresponding need to closely tailor enforcement policies in order to improve taxpayer compliance with the issue of tax return preparers. It suggests the area of tax return preparers and preparation services more generally presents an ideal, if not principal, opportunity to thoughtfully and more effectively ensure taxpayer compliance.

With more than eighty percent of all U.S. federal tax return filed in 2007 and 2008 using either a tax return preparer or preparation software, and the IRS projecting these numbers to be on the rise for tax year 2009, there is a growing and clear need to better understand the relationship between taxpayers and those who prepare their taxes, how this relationship affects taxpayer compliance, and how it may be utilized to improve compliance.

To this end, the paper examines the taxpayer-preparer compliance literature and empirical findings and evaluates them against the broader literature on tax enforcement and regulation. Weighing current proposals to increase the regulation of tax return paid preparers the paper assesses the strengths and weakness of the existing proposals, highlights features requiring further attention, and concludes with a few additional proposals.