In January 2010, the IRS published its Return Preparer Review Final Report, recommending extensive increases in oversight of the tax return preparer industry. These increases in oversight are suggested to be achieved through numerous measures, including preparer registration, competency testing,...

This paper re-examines whether auditor-provided tax services (APTS) are associated with better or worse audit quality. While some believe that one accounting firm providing both audit and tax services to a client improves audit quality through knowledge spillover, others are concerned that...

In 2002 more than 18 million low-income individual taxpayers received the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Despite its size, non-participation in this program is a concern and substantial effort is devoted by the IRS, local governments and many non-profits to address it. Most of the tax returns...

This study introduces and tests the applicability of a signal for individual tax reporting aggressiveness using German income tax return data. Tax aggressiveness is often defined as dealing with uncertainty - or more precisely: ambiguity - in an exploitative manner. In other words, firms and...

Rationality would suggest that advice-seeking investors receive benefits from costly financial advice. However, evidence documenting these benefits for U.S. investors has so far been lacking. This paper is the first to document that U.S. mutual fund investors indeed receive one of the many...

This study shows that financial advisors provide useful tax advice to their clients, being the first to provide evidence of tangible benefits delivered by financial advisors in the U.S. We find that investors who purchase mutual fund shares through financial advisors exhibit a stronger tendency...

This study shows that financial advisors provide useful tax advice to their clients, being the first to provide evidence of tangible benefits delivered by financial advisors in the U.S. We find that investors who purchase mutual fund shares through financial advisors exhibit a stronger tendency...