Tax preparation in the United States
preparation of tax returns in the United States of America
Tax preparation is the process of preparing tax returns, particularly income tax returns, on behalf of a taxpayer, typically for compensation. Taxpayers may complete their own returns, either manually or with the assistance of tax preparation software and online services. Alternatively, tax preparation may be conducted by licensed professionals such as attorneys, certified public accountants (CPAs), or enrolled agents, as well as by unlicensed tax preparation businesses. Some U.S. states impose licensing requirements for individuals or entities that prepare tax returns for compensation, which may apply to federal, state, or both types of tax returns.
United States income tax laws are considered to be complicated, leading many taxpayers to seek outside assistance with taxes (53.5% of individual tax returns in 2016 were filed by paid preparers). Commercial tax preparation companies have extensively lobbied against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) creating its own free online system of tax filing like those that exist in most other wealthy countries.
The Free File Alliance provides free tax preparation software for individuals with less than $72,000 of adjusted gross income for tax year 2020. People who make more than $72,000 can use Free File Fillable Forms, electronic versions of U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) paper forms. The IRS under the Joe Biden administration introduced a free electronic tax filing system, enabling individuals to avoid buying services from commercial tax preparation companies. The Republican Party and tax preparation companies have criticized this free electronic tax filing system and sought to end it.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Tax preparation in the United States” is preparation of tax returns in the United States of America. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through preparation, United and States, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7689457. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2016 and 2020.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tax preparation in the United States” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.