It’s been a long time since I took the Special Enrollment Examination to become certified as an Enrolled Agent. Luckily, I aced the exams and was able to become an Enrolled Agent.
That exam is still three parts, but you no longer sit at child desks for a few days in a big auditorium. (I took my exam at the IRS Regional Office in Baltimore.) No, now you sign up to take the exam at one of those Prometric sites. The exam still consists of three parts- one of which is about individual taxes, another on business taxation, and the third about representation and practices.
(The IRS has proposed raising the fee of the exam parts from $81 to $ 99 late last year. Only some 22000 exam parts are provisioned annually.)
The issue is that once you’ve passed the exam (and the background check), you are subject to the IRS rules and regulations. Where the IRS serves as judge, jury, and prosecutor for all those so enrolled.
Nevertheless, the IRS has just incited a lot of wrath among enrolled agents.
You see, the IRS has decided to more than double the renewal and initial enrollment fees from $ 67 to $ 140. Of course, they swore they did a complete analysis of the costs for the program and determined this was justified. (Note the last increase was just three years ago.)
And, there’s still that annual PTIN (preparer tax identification number) registration, which runs just under $ 36 a year. Some 2 million of these ID’s are issued- and whether one is a Certified Professional Accountant, an Enrolled Agent, or just a run-of-the-mill tax preparer, they are required. That’s so that the IRS has information on every individual who prepares a tax return for another.
Maybe it’s time to remember that there are only 62,286 EA’s on the roster. And, our enrollment lasts three years before the renewal date. So, even with the increased fees, the most the IRS would garner over a 3 year period doesn’t even approach $ 9 million. (Hmm. If the IRS actually went after these big firms and their tax schemes, they would garner more than that sum from any one of them.)
And, the IRS should want to promote the use of EA’s instead of these (mostly unqualified) tax preparers. Since we know what we are doing, we actually decrease the workload of the examiners- as well as prepare tax returns that can pass muster.
Obviously, that’s not so important to the IRS.
