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Thanks, Elrod, for always keeping us in a good mood, sharing laughter!

I do not see what the fuss is about. I would guess that almost everyone on this board is already regulated by Circular 230. This legislation is aimed at the approx. 50% of the preparers that are not EA's CPA's or Tax Atts. The TPAO has been pushing for this legislation every year. From Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/irswatch/2021/05/14/bidens-plan-to-regulate-return-preparers-is-welcome-news/

I haven't had unprofessional experience with IRS auditors either. When all the facts came out, they were usually more correct than my clients, who often were less than forthcoming with me when reporting their income or expenses. Like CBS, my worst experiences have been with State Unemployment auditors, who were definitely more hostile and wrong than IRS people. I've had to go to supervisors to get proper relief a couple times. But we are speaking of the IRS as it exists now. Not of the IRS when they receive regulatory powers. My guess is the regulators will not be the same people as the auditors.

On this we agree. Tom Longview, TX

During my 45 years as a professional accountant, I have been involved with several adversarial audits with aggressive auditors. However I don't ever remember being subject to scorn or feeling intimidated. In fact the two most aggressive audits I was ever involved with were not tax audits. The first was an Employment Tax Audit where the auditor was determined to prove than one or more of my client's 1099 subcontractors were in fact employees. This auditor didn't back off until his supervisor stepped in and told him to wrap up the audit and move on. The second was a Workers Compensation Audit where the auditor was determined to prove that several of my client's employees were performing work that should be classified in a higher cost class code. This auditor actually went to my client's facilities and followed the employees around to see what kind of work they actually were doing. This auditor ended up prevailing which cost my client an additional $ 6.000.00 in Workers Comp Fees.

I think most preparers are aware that for 2021, similar to 2020, that nonitemizers will be able to deduct $300 in cash contributions. In addition MFJ will be able to deduct $600 in 2021. However, I would suspect that most preparers like me were not aware that the deduction has been moved from above the line reducing AGI to below the line thus reducing Taxable Income but not reducing AGI. Who knew?

I miss the 30 years before this where the 1040 remained mostly the same. Hell, I used to know some line numbers by heart.