Many people mistakenly believe that it requires an accounting degree or another type of educational achievement to become a professional tax preparer. You'd be surprised to know that the IRS isn’t overly strict about who can become a Tax Preparer.
For the most part if you can successfully obtain an IRS Preparer Tax Identification Number (aka PTIN), you may prepare federal tax returns for clients and get paid for your work, knowledge, and time.
According to the IRS:
Any tax
professional with an IRS Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) is
authorized to prepare federal tax returns. However, tax professionals
have differing levels of skills, education, and expertise.
There are only 2 groups of Tax Professionals
The primary difference between the different types of Income Tax Professionals is their representation rights before the IRS beyond the preparation of tax forms. Tax professionals either have Unlimited Representation Rights or Limited Representation Rights.
To help taxpayers determine return preparer credentials and qualifications, the IRS has a public directory containing certain tax professionals. This directory is searchable, sortable database includes the name, city, state, and zip code of attorneys, CPAs, enrolled agents, enrolled retirement plan agents, and enrolled actuaries with valid PTINs for 2023, as well as Annual Filing Season Program Record of Completion recipients.
GET LISTEDAlthough the information from deciding a business name to establishing data security protocals for IRS compliance is available on this site - you may need it to print or deliver to others in a PDF or print format.