Online PTIN Directories: What, Why?

Although this is not something that one should ponder about his tax preparer, whether or not he/she has a PTIN, it does seem to be a way of possibly proving legitimacy as having had a PTIN. The Freedom of information act has given the world access to much of our personal information, and now, the world gets our PTINs.  www.PTINdirectory.com and others offer an online database for PTIN verification of your preparer’s identification.

You can look yourself up. I just did. There I was with my address in all my postal mailing glory. People have differing opinions about internet databases that contain our personal information, but this seems to be a glorified fact-checker for  tax preparers. You can search your PTIN number online by credentials as well. You can search for CPAs, JDs, etc.

One of the nice things is that this PTIN directory lookup doesn’t give away all of your information, just name and address, but there are other similar websites that even have your phone numbers, which could lead to some pranking, but beyond that I don’t see too much fraud potential in this if they do not give out your PTIN, SSN, EIN, etc. This tax preparer PTIN lookup website is not run by the IRS, none of them are, so always exercise caution when verifying information or submitting personal information.