How to check a CPA or tax preparer before you hire them

A paid preparer and a CPA are not the same fact. A PTIN is an IRS registration. A CPA license is a state license. Check each claim with the office that issued it before you send a return.

What a PTIN proves

Anyone who prepares a federal tax return for compensation needs a preparer tax identification number, a PTIN. The IRS says that number authorizes the holder to prepare the return. It does not make the person a CPA, an enrolled agent, or an attorney, and by itself it does not let them represent you before the IRS.

The same IRS page says the preparer must enter the PTIN on the return that is filed. They do not have to print it on the copy they give you. Ask for it, and keep the pages that show who prepared the return.

Unclaimed CPA Seek listings are built from IRS public preparer records. Those rows do not include a state license number. A name in that file means the person was in the preparer extract. It is not a lookup at the state board. Read the license line on the profile, and read how a listing gets checked.

What a CPA license proves

A CPA is licensed by a state board of accountancy, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory. The IRS describes the usual path as the Uniform CPA Examination, study in accounting, experience, and the character, ethics, and continuing-education rules of that board. The license is what allows the CPA title. A PTIN does not.

Ask which state issued the license, then check that board’s own lookup. A CPA licensed in one state can often do the work for a client in another. That is still a license. It is not always a license from the client’s state. “I am a CPA,” with no state and no number, is not something you can verify.

A firm name that includes “CPA” is not the same thing as a person who holds the license. Ask who will sign the return and which license that person holds.

Enrolled agents, attorneys, and other preparers

The IRS sorts these credentials, and the representation rights that go with them, on its page Understanding tax return preparer credentials and qualifications.

Enrolled agents, CPAs, and attorneys have unlimited representation rights. They may represent a client in an audit, a collection matter, or an appeal. An enrolled agent is licensed by the IRS, not by a state accountancy board. The IRS says an enrolled agent passes a three-part Special Enrollment Examination, passes a suitability check, and completes 72 hours of continuing education every three years.

An attorney is licensed by a state bar. A law license is not a CPA license. Some attorneys prepare returns. Many do not. Ask whether tax preparation is the work this attorney does.

The Annual Filing Season Program is voluntary. People who complete it have limited representation rights. The IRS limits that authority to clients whose returns they prepared and signed, and to conversations with revenue agents, customer service representatives, and similar employees, including the Taxpayer Advocate Service. Appeals and collection are outside that authority, even for a return they prepared.

Someone with a PTIN, no professional credential, and no Annual Filing Season Program record may still prepare the return. The IRS says that, beginning in 2016, preparation is the only authority that PTIN gives them. They have no authority to represent you before the IRS.

The IRS also publishes a directory of attorneys, CPAs, enrolled agents, enrolled retirement plan agents, enrolled actuaries, and Annual Filing Season Program participants. A preparer who is not in that directory can still be allowed to prepare returns. Missing from the directory is not a finding. Being in it is a credential you can try to match to a state board or a state bar.

Red flags

Pause when the person will not name the credential and the office that issued it. Pause when someone who is not a CPA, an enrolled agent, or an attorney offers to handle an appeal or a collection case. Those are matters the IRS reserves for unlimited representation rights.

Read the return before you sign it. Ask which account will receive a refund, and keep that account in your name. Ask which PTIN will be on the filed return. A useful preparer can answer those three without a speech.

None of this measures skill. The IRS says preparers who are not in its directory may still prepare a good return. The check is whether the claim they made is a claim you can verify.

Questions worth asking

• Which credential do you hold, and which state board, state bar, or IRS enrollment can I use to confirm it?
• Will you sign the return, and will your PTIN be on the copy filed with the IRS?
• Who prepares the return, and who answers questions after it is filed?
• If the IRS writes, can you represent me, and on which matters?
• Which parts of this work do you not do?

A useful answer names a credential, a place you can check it, and a limit. “We do everything” is not a limit.

Where to start

Find a CPA by city and by service, then open the profile before you send documents. Individual tax preparation is the household return. IRS representation is a notice, an exam, or a balance. Those are different hires. An S corporation or LLC has its own questions, covered in how to choose a CPA for an S corporation or LLC. If a letter is already on the table, use what to bring a CPA when the IRS sends a notice.

State directories list published addresses. Texas, California, and Florida are three large ones. A city page is the narrower list, for example Austin or Miami. What a fee is supposed to cover is in how much a CPA costs for taxes. A service page such as bookkeeping in Anchorage explains the work. When few listings name that service, the page says so and links people published in the city. A city with almost no published address also links nearby cities.