Abstract Tax practitioners are viewed by the government as contributing significantly to tax-payer noncompliance in the United States. Congress has tried to influence their behavior through the use of preparer penalties. Prior research, based on opinions and beliefs of practitioners, has indicated that preparer penalties may not be effective in altering practitioners' behavior. This research empirically tests whether preparer penalties influence the aggressiveness of CPAs when (1) giving advice to a client, and (2) signing a client's return. This research also examines the impact of client compensation on the aggressiveness of CPAs. The results indicate that a higher level of present and future compensation received from a client does increase the aggressiveness of CPAs when giving advice or signing returns. Preparer penalties were found to be effective in reducing CPAs' aggressiveness for only signing returns.
Reckers et al. (Sun,) studied this question.