Should You Report Non-CTEC-Registered Tax Preparers?

Most likely if you are visiting a website called RenewCTEC.com, you take your education and registration requirements seriously. Thousands of us every year pay for our 20 hour CTEC course, pay CTEC their registration fee, and then pay the IRS to renew our PTINs. In other words, thousands of us do everything that is required of us in order to do taxes for pay in the State of California.

But you know what? Many other "tax preparers" skip the mandatory education, skip the fees, and still do taxes for money.

What should the rest of us do about these interlopers? Would you report a tax preparer who was doing taxes for fees without valid CTEC registration? Or would you look the other way and "mind your own business"?

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When is the Deadline for Renewing my CTEC?

By Tim Frye

Everyone knows that America's national pastime is no longer baseball. And no, it's not the NFL either. It's procrastination. We all do it. So don't feel bad when it's Halloween night this year and as your sliding on your monkey suit and headed out to party, you realize you had to complete your 20 Hour CTEC continuing education requirements by midnight. We are not here to judge, just ever-present to remind you to not be that guy.

If you are tax preparer, and you do not complete your 20 hours of continuing education for CTEC by the October 31^st deadline, you can still complete the hours after. There will, however, be an extra $55 CTEC late fee tacked on the regular $25 rate.

How Much Does It Cost to Renew Your CTEC Registration

California tax preparers must renew their registration with the California Tax Education Council (CTEC) each year. Tax preparers in California who are not registered with CTEC cannot legally prepare tax returns for pay in the State of California and may become subject to fines of up to $5,000 per incident if their CTEC registration expires and is not renewed. CTEC requires two things as a condition of renewing your CTEC registration: you must 1) complete a 20 hour CTEC-approved continuing education tax course and 2) pay a renewal fee to CTEC.

In this blog post, we will tell you exactly how much it costs to renew your CTEC registration and give you a helpful tip to save money on CTEC renewal costs.

Important 2012 Changes to the CTEC Re-Registration Process if Your CTEC Registration Has Been "Archived"

For 2012, we have witnessed an important change to the process of the California Tax Education Council (CTEC) with regard to CTEC-registered tax preparers whose registration has been "archived" (a.k.a. expired) due to the lack of completion of the 20 hour CTEC continuing education requirement. For instance, let's say that you were registered as a tax preparer with CTEC for the 2010 fiscal year, but then you did not complete a 20 hour course for 2011, or perhaps your education provider did not report your 20 hours properly to CTEC.

In these situations, CTEC will "archive" the tax preparer registration, meaning that the tax preparer is no longer actually registered with CTEC.

A tax preparer who is not registered with CTEC can face fines from $2,500-$5,000 per tax return prepared without CTEC registration, so this is certainly a very serious issue if your CTEC registration has expired and you are still doing taxes for pay in California. Believe it or not, we have had quite a few calls over the past year on our CTEC phone hotline 310-422-1283 from RenewCTEC.com students who were not aware that their CTEC registration had expired. Unfortunately, many preparers may be operating with expired CTEC registration without their knowledge.

Yikes!

Notes from the CTEC / IRS Joint Conference for Education Providers

The following notes are from the recent CTEC / IRS Joint Conference for Education Providers held in Sacramento California this past May 16th 2012. The speakers at the conference discussed how the new IRS education requirements will meld with CTEC existing requirements. David Williams from IRS Return Preparer Office was featured speaker - Paul Latter and Tabitha Bolkish in charge of things on the CTEC side.

Date: May 16th, 2012
Location: Sacramento, Ca.

Notes taken by Andy Frye of Pronto Income Tax of California, Inc. (RenewCTEC.com)

Paul Latter & Tabitha Bolkish - Chair / CTEC

David Williams - Featured Speaker - From IRS Return Preparer Office