GAO Study: Tax Return Preparers Make "Serious Errors"

The Government Accountability Office today released Paid Tax Return Preparers: In a Limited Study, Chain Preparers Made Serious Errors (GAO-06-563T) (37 pages).  From the 1-page highlights:

In GAO visits to commercial preparers, paid preparers often prepared returns that were incorrect, with tax consequences that were sometimes significant. Their work resulted in unwarranted extra refunds of up to almost $2,000 in 5 instances, while in 2 cases they cost the taxpayer over $1,500. Some of the most serious problems involved preparers

• not reporting business income in 10 of 19 cases;
• not asking about where a child lived or ignoring GAO’s answer to the question and, therefore, claiming an ineligible child for the EIC in 5 out of the 10 applicable cases;
• failing to take the most advantageous postsecondary education tax benefit in 3 out of the 9 applicable cases; and
• failing to itemize deductions at all or failing to claim all available deductions in 7 out of the 9 applicable cases.