A recent IRS survey revealed that almost two thirds of tax preparers not enrolled with the IRS make errors in the returns they prepare. This study is illuminating, first for what it reveals, but also for what it obscures.

The first thing to keep in mind is that the study was more limited than the headlines indicate. According to the New York Times,

The report was done by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the independent oversight arm of the I.R.S. Agents posing as taxpayers solicited and paid for returns at a small sample of 28 unenrolled preparers — 16 of them at small mom-and-pop shops and 12 at chains.

Usually, a sample size of just 28 isn’t… Read more…