The Internal Revenue Service published final regulations officially lowering the fees for new Preparer Tax Identification Numbers and renewed PTINs.
The IRS announced last October it was slashing PTIN fees in response to a lawsuit. The interim final regulations said the application and renewal fee would be reduced to $11, plus an extra $8.75 for payment to a third-party contractor. That was considerably lower than the 2023 fee of $30.75 for renewing or obtaining a PTIN. The move came after a federal district court ruled last year in the case of Steele v. United States that the IRS was charging excessive PTIN fees from fiscal years 2011 to 2017.
The final regulations that the IRS posted Tuesday adopt without any change the text of interim final and proposed regulations that reduced the user fee to apply for or renew a PTIN from $21 ($21 plus $9.75 for the contractor fee) to $11, not counting the contractor fee.
The Internal Revenue Service facility in New Carrollton, Maryland
Al Drago/Bloomberg
The IRS said in the final regulations that the interim final rule and the proposed regulations took into account the February 2023 memorandum opinion of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Steele v. United States, and pointed out that the preamble to the interim final rule contains a detailed explanation of the legal background and user fee calculations regarding the amendments to these regulations.
No public hearing was requested or held, and no comments were received on the proposed regulations. The final regulations therefore are adopting the text of the interim final rule and proposed regulations without any changes.
Facing a backlash from audit firms about its proposal to toughen the standards for failing to detect noncompliance with laws and regulations, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has decided to delay action on the standard this year.
