The IRS announced May 21 it is refunding the fees that tax return preparers paid to take the RTRP competency test. 
  
Letters will be mailed to refund recipients on May 28 and checks will be mailed June 2, the IRS said. Preparers should allow until Aug. 2, 2015, to receive the refunds, the agency said in answers to Frequently Asked Questions, released with the statement. 
  
Return preparers took the test between November 2011 and January 2013, and paid a fee of $116. About 89,000 tests were paid for and taken, the IRS said, with some preparers taking the test more than once. 
  
The exam fee refunds are being made because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decided in February 2014 in Loving v. IRS that the IRS lacked the statutory authority to require testing and continuing education.