The Senate amendment to the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act 2017” directs the Secretary of the Treasury to promulgate due diligence requirements for paid preparers in determining eligibility for a tax payer to file as head of household.
So we are now again put in the unpleasant position of being the unpaid enforcement of the law. In order to avoid the $500 penalty imposed on each incident, we have to grill our clients to determine if they actually meet every requirement for head of household status.
Granted we make certain inquiries, but as of December 31, 2017 we are now the enforcement arm of the IRs for head of household status.