The AICPA Lacked Standing and Would not be Harmed by a Voluntary Program

The US District Court for the District of Columbia has dismissed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service by the American Institute of CPAs over its proposed voluntary education and testing program for non-CPA tax preparers.

In his ruling in the case of American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) v. Internal Revenue Service et al, Judge James Boasberg said the AICPA lacked standing and would not be harmed by a voluntary program.

“Arguing that AICPA and its members have suffered no harm from the program, Defendants IRS and the IRS Commissioner have now moved to dismiss the suit for lack of standing. Agreeing, the Court will grant Defendants’ Motion,” he wrote.

“Fairly viewed, the Program arguably creates one additional ‘category’ of tax preparers: unenrolled tax preparers who participate in the Program and receive a Record of Completion,” he wrote. “Nothing about that category is inherently confusing.”

Boasberg disagreed that consumers would be confused by the introduction of such a term into the “tax-preparer lexicon.”

“Beneath its amorphous rhetoric about confusion, the crux of Plaintiff’s concern is apparent: its membership feels threatened by the specter of increased competition from previously non-credentialed preparers who choose to complete the program,” the judge wrote.

Boasberg was the same judge who ruled against the IRS last year when that organization attempted to implement the program as mandatory for all tax preparers in the case of Loving v. IRS.

The AICPA has not decided yet whether to appeal the ruling.

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Source: Ruling at http://www.accountingtodaynewslegal-watchirsaicpadecision.php