December 2017

Staffing and funding for the IRS division that oversees tax exempt organizations has fallen dramatically in the last six years or so.

According to a behind-the-paywall article at the Washington Post, the budget for the Exempt Organization division has dropped from $102M to $82M between 2011 and FY 2017. That is a $20M decline, or 19.6%.

For the same years, staffing has declined from 889 to 642, according to the article. That is a decline of 247 positions, or 27.8%.

(Cross-posted from my other blog, Nonprofit Update, because this issue is of interest to most CPAs.)

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Reduced staffing and funding for the Exempt Organization division of the IRSRead More »

Recall you must renew your PTIN for next year in order to file tax returns as a paid preparer.

There is no fee for your 2018 renewal. Recall that back in June, a federal court tossed the fee. If I recall correctly from another article, the Treasury appealed the ruling which postponed the refund of all fees paid which the court ordered. I guess that means eventually we will either get our money back or have to start paying the fee again.

You can start the renewal process here.

It took me 8 minutes to renew.  Last year it took 12 minutes plus fifty bucks.