re: If a CPA makes a mistake that results in interest and penalties from the IRS....

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Does a lawyer request someone review their work before submitted? Does an engineer ask to review their math? A

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Well, in most cases, I (as the client) are not signing the legal filing, or stamping my name on the engineering renderings.

However, the client is signing the tax return.

Keep in mind, though, the reason for this.

Lawyers and engineers are required to be certified.

While CPAs are... remember that any old John Doe can prepare a tax return for you. They don't need to be certified, licensed, or anything like that.

Barbers and florists require more licensure than it takes someone to be paid to prepare a tax return.

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A CPA’s errors and omissions excuse should not be ‘the client should have reviewed it’. That’s absurd

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I agree with this. CPAs should hold themselves to a higher standard... but many do not, because they are miserable about the idea that someone can come in and charge $50 and prep a tax return with absolutely no licensure, competence, etc.

There's a lot of CPAs out there who are mailing it in so to speak at this point. It's not right, of course.

Was this for a business return? If you submitted a P&L and they didn’t net income from the rerun back to the P&L that’s something you may be able to challenge them on. If you just threw a bunch of 1099s at them piecemeal, and that income hadn’t been on a previous return, that’s a different story.

At the end of the day, it’s your return. You are basically asking them to prepare and file the schedules with taxing authorities.

Either way your best recourse would be finding a new CPA if you aren’t happy with this one.

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You earned the income, so you would definitely be responsible for that portion. In my limited experience, if you work w the IRS, they are often willing to waive/negotiate the penalties & interest if you’re able to make payments timely. If it’s truly the error of the CPA, they will often waive their fees to correct the mistake when it’s an obvious oversight on their end and will do their part to reduce/eliminate the fees & interest

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Agreed on all of this. If they truly just omitted it from organized support, they should want to make it right, and have the resources to expedite it.

The IRS is actually reasonable in this regard if you can pay it.