[Herman the German]

I am from Germany and work as a tax associate. My interests are international tax and expatriate tax and foreign countries. I have found this forum and I would like to ask some questions.

Is tax services not a protected industry in the US?

By “protected” I mean you need a at least a bachelor’s degree in economics/business or law and 2 two years of work experience at a tax/audit firm in order to be allowed to take the German state examination for tax advisors. If you have the wrong degree or the wrong kind of work experience, your are out! Only people who have passed this exam and are officially ordered are legally allowed to offer tax services. You are not allowed to file even the smallest income tax return without being a “certified tax advisor” in Germany.

Tax advisors file tax returns. But they are also allowed to represent clients in court (up to federal level!) in tax litigation (they are not lawyers, though, and may not represent clients in non-tax litigation). Tax advisors often offer business consulting for small companies. However, consulting is not a protected industry.

Then there is the other professional exam, the “German CPA” who is allowed to do everything the “certified tax advisor” may do and he also may audit companies. CPA exam comprises all three tax exams plus several other accounting exams.

What is the situation in the US or in your country?

[sarah210]

I'm pretty sure there is no such thing as a protected industry in the US. I mean, if you want to be a lawyer you have to go to law school and pass the bar, or if you want to be a surgeon you go to medical school and then pass your surgeons boards, so maybe that sort of thing counts?

But in the US, *anyone* can file an individual personal return. A lot of people file their own. A lot of people go to cheap places like H&R block, which basically hire anyone with a pulse to prepare returns during that time of year.

When it comes to other forms of taxation– corporate, partnerships, etc. I think in the US, what is most important is passing either the CPA exam or the EA exam.

For instance, I am going to be a tax accountant in a public accounting firm starting in January. My bachelor's degree is in history. When I decided to become an accountant, I took a bunch of accounting and business classes, but I don't have a degree in those topics. Now I'm taking the CPA exam. You don't have to have any specific work experience or specific college degree to be a tax accountant. You just have to eventually pass the CPA exam if you want to work in public accounting. I would imaging the same would be the case if you wanted to do tax advising for corporations, though I believe most companies hire public accounting firms to advise them on tax matters.

Another option is to become an enrolled agent, which means you can represent your client before the IRS. It's basically like getting the junior version of the CPA exam except it only focuses on tax issues. It's a three part test. If you are a lawyer or a CPA you can also represent your client before the IRS, but enrolled agents focus their careers on doing so. Hopefully I've answered some of your questions.

REG- 53, 91
BEC- 88
FAR- 62, 85
AUD- 85

Ethics- 93

[FLCPA77]

Herman,

In order to sign or prepare a tax return here in the US you need to have a Preparer Tax ID Number (PTIN) which can be received through the IRS(US tax authority). To obtain this number you have to register and pay a fee along with pass an exam administered by the IRS. If you are a CPA, EA, or attorney or you work under the supervision of any of these three then you only need to register for a PTIN, you don't have to take an exam. I don't believe that you can represent a client in front of the IRS with solely having only a PTIN, I am pretty sure that you have to be either a CPA, EA, or attorney to do this. There are no requirements(education, work, etc) to prepare tax returns besides obtaining a PTIN.

FAR - 90
AUD - 82
REG - 93
BEC - 80

[FLCPA77]

The info I provided you above is only related to paid tax preparers.

FAR - 90
AUD - 82
REG - 93
BEC - 80

[Wiley CPA Exam Review]

Hi Everyone the situation for tax preparers changed in the last 2 years — the IRS is in the process of requiring any *paid* preparer to pass the RTRP (Registered Tax Return Preparer) Exam in addition to getting the PTIN. There are also some continuing education requirements. All paid preparers must pass the 120 questions RTRP exam by 12/31/13 to continue to prepare taxes.

Wiley has launched http;//www.passthetaxexam.com to help preparers prep and pass the RTRP. On that site are links to various info sources regarding this https://www.passthetaxexam.com/links/ (google “rtrp exam” or go to https://www.irs.gov/ptin to find other news).

[Herman the German]

Thank you guys. This was the information I was looking for.

With “protected” I meant that there are certain requirements (having a degree in a certain field, passing a state exam, relevant work experience etc.) you have to meet in order to be allowed to set up your own tax firm. If the rules are very strict, it is a kind of protection in my opinion because many people do not meet these requirements and getting a business or law degree is expensive, then you have to work a couple of years in the field. It will take many years to get into this business and it is often unrealistic if you already have different background.

Being able to take a professional exam without previous work experience sounds very cool. In Germany you must have at least two years worth of tax experience in order to be allowed to take part in the state tax exam. Because of this it was relatively difficult to get a first tax job especially in smaller firms. They asked me in the interview if I was planning to take part in the exam. They were very reluctant to hire a graduate because they feared that I would quit the job after only two years or that I would be overqualified after having passed the exam. They were mostly looking for staff without college education. Taking the exam right after college would have helped.

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