What is an Enrolled Agent?

Enrolled Agents are federally-authorized tax practitioners. Enrolled Agents, Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and attorneys are empowered by the United States Department of the Treasury to represent taxpayers before all administrative levels of the IRS. 

Enrolled Agents work for you, the taxpayer, not the IRS.

Unlike  attorneys and CPAs, who may or may not choose to specialize in taxation, all Enrolled Agents specialize in taxes.  EAs are the only taxpayer representatives who receive their right to practice from the U.S. Government. CPAs and attorneys are licensed by the states.

All three groups of tax practitioners are regulated  by the United States Government under U.S. Treasury Circular 230. See our Legal Notices page for more information.

Want to learn more about Enrolled Agents? 

For more information regarding Enrolled Agents, vist the National Association of Enrolled Agents website at www.naea.org

Qualifications 

This professional credential is earned either by passing a difficult 2-day examination administered by the Internal Revenue Service or based on a minimum of 5 years employment in the IRS in a position where the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code and its regulations were regularly applied and interpreted.  ALL ENROLLED AGENTS ARE SUBJECTED TO A RIGOROUS BACKGROUND CHECK CONDUCTED BY THE IRS. 

EAs are required to complete 72 hours of continuing professional education in the fields of taxation and ethics, reported every 3 years to maintain their license. Due to the difficulty in becoming an Enrolled Agent and keeping up the required credentials, there are only approximately 40,000 active EAs in the United States.