Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) released Part Deux of his tax reform proposal today and it mostly addresses penalties for identity theft as well as securing the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File. As enthralling as all this sounds, Baucus's plan also would give "legal authority" for the IRS to regulate tax preparers. A judge brought the rules to a halt earlier this year, finding "the 19th century statute cited by the IRS didn’t let it require preparers to pass competency tests or pay fees." Of course, tax reform has about a snowball's chance in hell of becoming law, so little cause for concern. Although we'd never stand in your way of kvetching about it, anyway. [Bloomberg]
