Anyone who, for compensation, prepares all or substantially all of any federal tax return or claim for refund must obtain a PTIN issued by the IRS.
Preparers who do not have social security numbers because of religious objections can complete the PTIN application and submit paper Form 8945, PTIN Supplemental Application For U.S. Citizens Without a Social Security Number Due To Conscientious Religious Objection.
Foreign preparers who do not have or who are not eligible for social security numbers must complete the PTIN application and submit paper Form 8946, PTIN Supplemental Application For Foreign Persons Without a Social Security Number.
The IRS announced in November 2010 that it would not put the onus of compliance on individual taxpayers by rejecting tax returns without valid PTINs.
[12] The use of the PTIN predated by many years the launching of the IRS Registered Tax Return Preparer Program in 2010.
On January 18, 2013, in a decision in Loving v. Internal Revenue Service, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the Internal Revenue Service lacked the statutory authority to regulate tax return preparers.
[13] On February 1, 2013, the Court issued an additional order clarifying that the IRS is "not required to suspend its PTIN program," but that "no tax-return preparer may be required to pay testing or continuing-education fees or to complete any testing or continuing education.