Looking For a U.S. Tax Return Preparer? Ask Them These Important Questions First.

Key Takeaways

Not all U.S. tax pre­par­ers are qual­i­fied for cross-bor­der tax mat­ters
U.S. tax fil­ing oblig­a­tions for expats and cross-bor­der tax­pay­ers are com­plex and require spe­cial­ized exper­tise. It’s crit­i­cal to ver­i­fy a preparer’s qual­i­fi­ca­tions, U.S. tax back­ground, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions (such as PTIN), and famil­iar­i­ty with inter­na­tion­al tax laws before engag­ing their ser­vices.

Cre­den­tials, com­pli­ance, and trans­paren­cy mat­ter
Ask if the pre­par­er is list­ed in the IRS direc­to­ry, whether they sign the return, and if they e‑file. Red flags include vague qual­i­fi­ca­tions, con­tin­gent fees, or fil­ing unnec­es­sary IRS forms “just to be safe.” A qual­i­fied pro­fes­sion­al should explain their deci­sions and stand by their work.

Your rela­tion­ship with your pre­par­er shouldn’t end at fil­ing
Choose a U.S. tax return pre­par­er who is avail­able after the return is filed — for ques­tions, audits, or future plan­ning. Avoid fly-by-night ser­vices or those who out­source work to third par­ties with­out over­sight. Reli­able sup­port is just as impor­tant as accu­rate fil­ing.

NOTE: This arti­cle was orig­i­nal­ly draft­ed for the 2025 tax fil­ing year. For the cur­rent 2025 returns being filed in 2026, the same pre­par­er screen­ing prin­ci­ples apply, and this remains rel­e­vant as tax­pay­ers pre­pare and file their returns.

1. Do you have tax filing obligations with the IRS for the 2024 tax year?

As an Amer­i­can expat, cross-bor­der tax mat­ters are often com­plex and typ­i­cal­ly require the ser­vices of a qual­i­fied U.S. tax return pre­par­er. It’s impor­tant to stay tax com­pli­ant and be aware of recent cross-bor­der tax devel­op­ments, espe­cial­ly, dur­ing tur­bu­lent times and ever-evolv­ing tax com­pli­ance and enforce­ment frame­work. It’s near­ly impos­si­ble to keep your fin­ger on the pulse of all these devel­op­ments, espe­cial­ly, if you’re some­one with no train­ing or expe­ri­ence in U.S. tax­es. Even tax prac­ti­tion­ers strug­gle from time to time and require sig­nif­i­cant resources and due dili­gence to stay up-to-date. To make sure the tax fil­ing process is com­plet­ed in an accu­rate and time­ly man­ner, choose a qual­i­fied U.S. tax return pre­par­er with rel­e­vant cross-bor­der tax expe­ri­ence. With the right pro­fes­sion­al by your side, you will be able to file your U.S. tax­es, while mit­i­gat­ing errors and max­i­miz­ing applic­a­ble tax ben­e­fits. That begs the ques­tion: How do you find the right cross-bor­der U.S. tax return pre­par­er? There are sev­er­al types of tax pre­par­ers: their aca­d­e­m­ic back­ground, pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence in the cross-bor­der tax area and U.S. inter­na­tion­al tax, qual­i­fi­ca­tions and pro­fes­sion­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, as well as the prac­tice set­up that set them apart from each oth­er. Do your due dili­gence and care­ful­ly review your qual­i­fied cross-bor­der U.S. tax return preparer’s aca­d­e­m­ic and pro­fes­sion­al cre­den­tials — did they just take a course or a few cours­es in U.S. tax or do they have a U.S. aca­d­e­m­ic back­ground? Did they gain all their U.S. tax expe­ri­ence while work­ing in Cana­da or out­side the Unit­ed States or do they have actu­al U.S. work expe­ri­ence? Do they keep up-to-date with recent tax devel­op­ments? Your needs will deter­mine which cross-bor­der U.S. tax return pre­par­er is right for you. Here are a few ques­tions to ask before mak­ing a deci­sion.

2. Did Your U.S. Tax Return Preparer Sign the Prepared Tax Return?

If you had some­one assist­ing you in prepar­ing your U.S. tax return and you com­pen­sat­ed them for tax return prepa­ra­tion, they should sign the tax return in the respec­tive field and include oth­er rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion on the tax return. The absence of a tax return preparer’s sig­na­ture and oth­er infor­ma­tion is usu­al­ly indica­tive of a lack of a qual­i­fied tax return pre­par­er cer­ti­fi­ca­tion or des­ig­na­tion. It can also be an indi­ca­tion of unwill­ing­ness of the tax return pre­par­er to take a risk of an IRS audit or tax author­i­ties’ chal­lenges to the tax fil­ing posi­tion tak­en on the pre­pared tax return (this could be a result of lim­it­ed tech­ni­cal knowl­edge or friv­o­lous tax posi­tion tak­en on the pre­pared tax return). Note that hav­ing a U.S. tax return preparer’s sig­na­ture on your tax return does not remove your respon­si­bil­i­ty for the infor­ma­tion reflect­ed on the tax return. As the tax­pay­er, you are respon­si­ble!  

3. Does Your U.S. Tax Return Preparer Have the Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN)?

Any­one who receives com­pen­sa­tion for prepar­ing or assist­ing tax­pay­ers in the prepa­ra­tion of fed­er­al tax returns must have a Pre­par­er Tax Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion Num­ber (PTIN). This is a require­ment by the IRS. It is also manda­to­ry for the tax return pre­par­er to include their sig­na­ture as well as their PTIN in your U.S. tax return. Sim­i­lar to the lack of sig­na­ture dis­cussed above, the absence of PTIN may indi­cate the lack of a qual­i­fied tax return pre­par­er qual­i­fi­ca­tion or pro­fes­sion­al des­ig­na­tion.  

4. Is Your U.S. Tax Return Preparer in the IRS Directory of Preparers?

The IRS direc­to­ry does not include tax pre­par­ers. How­ev­er, it will show you those U.S. tax return pre­par­ers who are CPAs and licensed attor­neys, enrolled agents, and those who are part of the Annu­al Fil­ing Sea­son Pro­gram. Why is this impor­tant? For starters, tax pre­par­er fraud is one of the most com­mon tax scams. The IRS direc­to­ry enables you to find the most com­pe­tent tax pre­par­er near you with the right cre­den­tials. As such, peo­ple who pro­vide vol­un­tary tax pre­par­er ser­vices or pre­par­ers with no cre­den­tials, but just PTINs, won’t be in this data­base. The IRS Direc­to­ry of Pre­par­ers can be accessed here: [Click here]  

5. What Are Your Fees?

The IRS sug­gests that it’s best to steer clear of pre­par­ers with con­tin­gent fees; mean­ing they get paid for prepar­ing your tax return based on the amount of your refund. Also, avoid pre­par­ers who sug­gest deposit­ing all or part of your refund in their bank account. Don’t fall prey to those who guar­an­tee that they can fetch you a more size­able refund than the next tax accoun­tant. This is a red flag. By the same token, be wary of cross-bor­der U.S. tax return pre­par­ers who offer to pre­pare and file your U.S. tax return for close to noth­ing. U.S. inter­na­tion­al tax is one of the most com­plex areas of U.S. tax law, and par­tic­u­lar facts and cir­cum­stances may dic­tate a more com­pli­cat­ed analy­sis and, accord­ing­ly, high­er fees. Look, we get it. Deal­ing with one’s tax­es is no fun. Pay­ing for it a for­tune is the least you’d like to do. But this is one of the areas of your life that you’d bet­ter get right. You don’t want to be sub­ject to hefty penal­ties for non-com­pli­ance if your U.S.tax return pre­par­er missed an impor­tant form or filed it incor­rect­ly. Notably, fil­ing an IRS form when it is not required may cre­ate more issues than fail­ure to file a par­tic­u­lar IRS form time­ly. Be wary of U.S. tax return pre­par­ers who would file an IRS form for you “for con­ser­v­a­tive rea­sons.” That may indi­cate that they don’t know if the form is required to be filed in the first place. Now, if they pro­vid­ed you with their ratio­nale and expla­na­tion of why they believe the form should be filed (even for con­ser­v­a­tive rea­sons), they may have the basis for such rec­om­men­da­tion. Review your cross-bor­der U.S. tax return pre­par­er fee struc­ture and con­sid­er it in mak­ing your deci­sion on whether to retain their ser­vices, but don’t make this the only or pri­ma­ry fac­tor in your deci­sion-mak­ing process. As a gen­er­al mat­ter, you should expect high­er fees for high­er qual­i­ty work. The good news is that you can choose and do your own due dili­gence and research.  

6. Does Your U.S. Tax Return Preparer File Tax Returns Electronically?

Gen­er­al­ly, all paid pre­par­ers who have pre­pared more than 10 returns for their clients are required to file U.S. tax returns elec­tron­i­cal­ly. Both the IRS and state tax author­i­ties have this or sim­i­lar require­ment. If the U.S. tax return pre­par­er doesn’t use e‑file func­tion­al­i­ty, it may be indica­tive of the lack of rel­e­vant expe­ri­ence or cre­den­tials that allow U.S. tax return pre­par­ers to file tax returns elec­tron­i­cal­ly. You should at least inquiry about this. Note that e‑filing speeds up the pro­cess­ing of filed tax returns and accel­er­ates a refund when owed. At the same time, some U.S. tax returns can­not be e‑filed. Your qual­i­fied cross-bor­der U.S. tax return pre­par­er should explain to you the tax return posi­tion, fil­ing strat­e­gy, and what to expect after the tax return was filed.  

7. Will Your U.S. Tax Return Preparer Be Around After Your Return is Filed?

This is a ques­tion that often falls by the way­side. It’s incred­i­bly impor­tant to check on whether your pre­par­er will be around in the fol­low­ing months or years after they’ve worked with you. You may have ques­tions, con­cerns, or sim­ply need to clar­i­fy some­thing on your tax return. In addi­tion, your tax return may be audit­ed. If it comes to that, your qual­i­fied U.S. tax return pre­par­er (such as an enrolled agent, a CPA, or a tax attor­ney) can also rep­re­sent you before the IRS dur­ing an audit or appeals. Make dou­ble sure that they will be avail­able to assist you after the return is filed. Make sure that they do exist. As fun­ny as it may sound, we are liv­ing in the dig­i­tal era. Many tax return pre­par­ers only exist online / vir­tu­al­ly. They don’t have an office and work here and there, pri­mar­i­ly by “farm­ing out” U.S. tax return prepa­ra­tion to third-par­ty con­trac­tors and oth­er firms. While work­ing remote­ly is a new way of get­ting things done, hav­ing some­one who is actu­al­ly in the busi­ness of tak­ing care of one’s tax­es is bet­ter than work­ing with a great mar­keter and sales pro­fes­sion­al who found a way to sell you the work, as well as get some­one do it for them. How can you check if your qual­i­fied cross-bor­der U.S. tax return pre­par­er exists? While you work with them, keep tabs on how respon­sive they are via phone and email. Did you even meet your tax return pre­par­er in per­son or via video con­fer­ence? You may want to vis­it their offices and do addi­tion­al research on how long they have been in busi­ness and what process they are using to get the job done. U.S. Tax IQ’s qual­i­fied U.S. tax advi­sors are at your ser­vice. We will care­ful­ly assess your unique tax require­ments and devel­op an effi­cient strat­e­gy that helps you ensure tax com­pli­ance and effec­tive­ly man­age your cross-bor­der U.S. tax expo­sure. Don’t wait until the eleventh hour and be proac­tive. Start today and stay com­pli­ant.