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One year I encountered a very shoddy and incompetent preparer who was apparently making up the numbers he was putting on tax returns.  I know because my client was a partner in a business this guy was preparing the returns for.  Anyone competent who looked at the partnership return would immediately know the return was woefully inadequate.  I talked to my client.  Then I talked to the IRS, and was told, "We can do nothing about it."  The next year my client switched to the incompetent tax preparer on the grounds that they may as well get in on the cheating if the IRS could do nothing about it.

That situation resulted in a rash of shoddy returns and questionable positions taken on tax returns.  This phenomena was not limited to part time shops.  It stretched all the way to well known shops such as Deloitte, Jackson Hewitt and H&R Block.

Deloitte was pushing a fraudulent tax scheme that got a large number of its partners prosecuted.  Some of them may serve jail time.  The federal government may still decide to prosecute the firm itself.

Jackson Hewitt was apparently hiring untrained people who were unable to do a competent job of preparing a tax return.  Then they were apparently loaning money based on the inflated refunds.  I think it was something like that.

H&R Block also got in trouble for making loans to its clients.

This has been a crying need for a long time. 

Finally it has been addressed by the Congress.

Congress addressed this issue last year with additional penalties on preparers for taking unsubstantiated positions on tax returns.  These penalties have big teeth.  You can actually lose your ability to practice before the IRS.

Eventually, that should clear out a lot of unscrupulous preparers.