On the heels of some negative publicity private companies have received in the aftermath of two controversial issues over at the IRS - regarding a decision to change the rules governing the privacy rights of citizen's tax return information and a new program outsourcing collection of overdue taxes - more bad news came out of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) yesterday for paid tax preparation companies such as H&R Block. During a Senate Finance Committee hearing yesterday on the costs of filing tax return, the GAO shared some fairly shocking results from a study they did on the accuracy of returns completed by private tax preparers. The report showcases results of GAO investigators who used a paid preparer to file their tax returns and found that the returns suffered from errors and "willful or reckless disregard of tax rules." (read highlights of the report or the entire report.) GAO also found of the 19 tax returns in the study, the preparer made major mistakes in eight of them, awarding extra refunds in excess of $2000 in six of the cases and in two of the cases, costing the taxpayer over $1500. The other returns also contained moderate to serious errors and showcased imcompetence on the part of the preparer. Had these been actual tax returns, the preparation company would be subject to fines and penalties according to the IRS - but only if the IRS spotted the errors. Kind of makes you want to file your own tax return this year, huh? Minneapolis Star-Tribune (AP): Tax Preparation Training Standards Sought