In brief
Tax Professional Awareness Week starts the week of October 19.
An October 21 webinar focuses on refundable credits, with registration information on IRS.gov.
Other resources cover Form 8867, Schedule C errors, Tax Pro Account and cybersecurity.
A training calendar with practical targets
The IRS is launching Tax Professional Awareness Week during the week of October 19, with webinars, instructional videos and tools intended to help preparers get ready for the 2027 filing season.
The most concrete calendar item is an October 21 webinar, "How Much Do You Know About Refundable Credits," featuring IRS subject matter experts. Registration details and supporting materials are available through the agency's Tax Professional Awareness Week page.
For firm managers, this is a chance to assign training around recurring return-preparation risks rather than send the entire staff a resource link and hope someone reads it.
Start with due diligence and Schedule C
The IRS plans instructional videos on completing Form 8867, the Paid Preparer's Due Diligence Checklist, as well as avoiding common Schedule C reporting errors. Its resource page reminds preparers that due diligence requires interviewing clients, determining eligibility and retaining supporting documentation, not simply certifying that a checklist was completed.
A useful internal follow-up is to compare those materials with the firm's intake questions and reviewer checklists. Staff should know what evidence belongs in the file, which inconsistencies require another question and when a return is not ready for review.
The program also includes Taxpayer Advocate Service resources and information about Tax Pro Account. Those topics give client-service teams a reason to check whether they know which tools are available before filing-season demand rises.
Include security and new filing priorities
Additional announced topics include identity theft prevention, cybersecurity, payment modernization, Automatic Exemption from Penalty, Saver's Match and Trump Accounts. The announcement lists these as training subjects; it does not itself establish a new filing deadline or change a client's eligibility.
The IRS expects to add educational resources throughout the year. Firms can use this week as a starting point, then turn the relevant material into concrete updates to intake, documentation and client communications.
The objective is not completing a week of webinars. It is ensuring the next return is prepared with the right questions, the right supporting records and fewer avoidable corrections.
