February 13, 1981

Your TaxesA Guide to Preparing 1980 ReturnsEleventh of 12 articles.- By DEBORAH RANKIN Even though the Internal Revenue Service has made a serious effort in recent years to simplify the tax forms, the tax code is so complex - it runs to some 6,000 pages of fine print - that many people relegate the chore of preparing their return to someone else. One result is a flourishing tax preparation industry that grosses as much as $1 billion a year. In 1980, 39 percent of the 88.8 million individual tax returns filed were completed by paid preparers, according to the I.R.S. The industry includes a wide range of preparers, from certified public accounts, who generally provide the most knowledgeable and comprehensive tax assistance, to fly-by-night operators who put out a shingle in January and disappear on April 15. Professional Help People whose financial lives are complex - for example, those with capital gains, income from a business or trust, or tax shelter losses - frequently turn to certified public accountants, or C.P.A.'s. C.P.A.'s generally are college graduates who have passed a complex four-part examination administered by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and have spent several years working for a recognized accounting firm. They are automatically entitled to represent taxpayers in audit disputes before the I.R.S.

New York City schools are closed today in observance of Lincoln's Birthday, and schools throughout the metropolitan area will be closed Monday for Washington's Birthday.

Administration economic officials said today that a struggle between two groups of advisers had ended with a decision to base budget revenue and spending projections to be released next week on a relatively conventional economic outlook. The officials said that Murray L. Weidenbaum, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and the budget director, David A. Stockman, jointly concluded that basing budget projections on a far more optimistic forecast for the economy, one prepared by the Claremont Economic Institute, a group of ''supply-side'' consultants, would divert attention from the projections to whether the forecast was realistic. The debate and decision over which numbers to use illustrated anew the tensions within the Reagan Administration between two groups of economic advisers. One, the ''supply-siders,'' is convinced that the Reagan program of budget and tax cuts will lead to dramatic improvement in the economy. The other, a more traditional group, is less optimistic and believes in more restraint in public pronouncements about the economic outlook.

An article in Business Day last Friday misstated the extent to which price controls on natural gas have been removed. Only four types of gas, including that from wells below 15,000 feet, have so far been decontrolled. All new gas and some old gas will be decontrolled in 1985, but most old gas will continue after 1985 to carry some price limitation.

Lenders are restricting credit to individuals as consumer-loan losses increase at U.S. banks, finance companies and retail operations. Those in the lower-income brackets or without real estate to use as collateral will find credit especially difficult to get. Lenders attribute the losses to last year's combination of recession and inflation and to a 1979 bankruptcy law that raised the amount of property individuals can protect against seizure by creditors. (Page A1.) The Administration will present a gloomier economic picture than it had intended when it offers budget projections next week. A pessimistic forecast would focus attention on the proposals, not on whether the forecast was realistic, officials said. Separately, Murray L. Weidenbaum, chairman-designate of the Council of Economic Advisers, expressed skepticism that the budget could be balanced by 1983, as the President has committed himself to doing. (D1.)