The Internal Revenue Service is seeking input on whether it should consider banning tax-return preparers from offering refund-anticipation loans.

The IRS has not restricted the loans, but said it will accept public comments on the issue until April 7.

"The Treasury Department and the IRS are concerned that RALs and certain other products may provide tax preparers with a financial incentive to take improper tax-return positions in order to inappropriately inflate refund claims," the IRS and Treasury Department said in a guidance statement.

David Williams, IRS director of electronic tax administration and refundable credits, told The Business Review, a Buffalo Law Journal sister paper in Albany, that the IRS wants to know whether it should propose new tax regulations prohibiting tax preparers from sending client information to banks that provide the loans.

He said this wouldn't prevent clients from taking their information directly to a bank or other entity that could grant a refund-anticipation loan.