Income tax preparation can be legally performed by lawyers and nonlawyers, alike. Income tax return preparation undeniably involves the application of the tax laws to each taxpayer’s unique financial circumstances. However, although that fact might sup­port a lawyer-nonlawyer distinction in other contexts, the Court does not believe it compels such a distinction in the income tax return preparation context. Unlike most other areas in which statutes impose legal obligations on the citizenry, in the income tax return preparation context the government has researched and interpreted the tax laws for the taxpayer in advance. The results of the government’s efforts are manifested in the variety of income tax return preparation instructions and informational publications issued by the government. These instructions and publications are supposedly written in everyday language, to permit a taxpayer to prepare his or her own return, to the extent that the taxpayer can­not understand the instructions or simply does not wish to be subjected to this universally frustrating task, the taxpayer is free to engage the services of lawyer or nonlawyer tax return preparers, who can also find guidance in the government-issued instructions and pamphlets.

The Court is not unmindful that questions occasionally arise in the income tax preparation context which require research and interpretation of the tax statutes and regulations beyond that mani­fested in the government-prepared instructions and pamphlets. However, on balance, the differences between lawyer and nonlawyer income tax return preparers are ones in degree, not in kind. more