A National Tax Bar: An End to the Attorney-Accountant Tax Turf War

Abstract

Our system of federal taxes is a set of laws, enacted by Congress and signed by the President. The practice of tax law is generally the practice of law. So why are the non-lawyers the ones practicing in this field? This article examines the regulation of the practice of law, including the question of who should be able to regulate the practice from two points of view: separation of powers (the courts or the legislatures) and federalism (the federal government as taxing authority or the state government as regulator of attorney practice). It also demonstrates that tax practice - from preparing returns to structuring deals to handling audits and arguing cases - is legal in nature, and needs two things: (1) competent practitioners, and (2) a strong set of ethical rules. Currently, neither the accounting nor the legal educational systems produce fully trained practitioners. This article proposes the establishment of a new National Tax Bar, subject to the jurisdiction of the federal courts.

Keywords: tax, income tax, tax practice, tax bar, accountant, cpa, federalism, practitioner, tax ethics

JEL Classification: H20, H24, H25, H26, K34, K20, K2, H2