Talk:Enrolled Agent

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[edit] Organizational notes

This article needs some organizational work, possibly in tandem with the articles on Tax advisor, Certified Public Accountant, and maybe even Attorney at Law. The term "tax advisor" and the term "tax preparer" (meaning income tax return preparer) and the term "Federally Authorized Tax Practitioner" are probably not precisely equivalent, yet the articles on Tax advisor and Enrolled Agent briefly discuss these kinds of concepts without a sufficiently-detailed distinction. These are related and somewhat overlapping concepts. Also, "practice before the Internal Revenue Service" under Circular 230, is a related, overlapping concept. In the United States you could be a "tax advisor" without actually preparing income tax returns. You could be a "tax advisor" without actually representing taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). You could be an income tax return preparer without being a tax advisor -- and without representing taxpayers before the IRS. You could be an enrolled agent and represent taxpayers in dealings with the IRS without being an income tax return preparer. You could also be a tax return preparer without being an income tax return preparer. For example, a person who prepares Form 941 (payroll tax), Form 706 (estate tax), Form 709 (gift tax) or other forms is not an income tax return preparer. Statutory rules for income tax return preparers, such as those at 26 U.S.C. § 6694 et seq., would not necessarily apply to preparers of tax returns that are not income tax returns. So, we have a lot of related but only partially overlapping concepts that need to be addressed. Yours, Famspear 17:09, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

An article which describes the relationship between these concepts would be nice. Not sure what to call it though. Maybe tax preparation in the United States? Hmm, or maybe tax preparation and representation in the United States. Suggestions, anyone? anthony 12:53, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Practice Before State DOR's

Agreed that attorneys and CPA's are licensed by states, but I don't think that fact lessens their status. I'm not sure of the statement that EA's can practice before any state tax authority is correct. Is ther a citation? P.S. I have been an EA since 1979.Jmarsh48 22:25, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I also am not sure about the statement. (In the interest of disclosure, I am an attorney-CPA.) I'm adding a citation tag until I can check on this. Yours, Famspear 15:20, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Dear fellow editors: I am at least temporarily removing the following verbiage:

Since EAs are nationally registered, an Enrolled Agent can appear before the Internal Revenue Service and before any state tax enforcement agency, making the EA license a national license, compared to CPA and attorney licenses as only state licenses.

First, I know of no authority for the proposition that the EA designation in and of itself authorizes an EA to appear before a state tax enforcement agency.

Second, without checking on this I suspect that attorneys or CPAs or maybe both probably have some authority to appear on behalf of taxpayers in dealings with state tax enforcement agencies -- especially attorneys -- and that the authority to practice might actually exceed that of an EA. I don't know that to be a fact -- it's something we need to check.

Third, the verbiage deleted from the article seems to at least imply that an EA -- who is not licensed by a state -- somehow would have a greater ability to practice before a state taxing authority than would an attorney or CPA -- who IS licensed by the state.

Stay tuned; I will try to check on what the rule actually is. If the text is accurate, it can be re-inserted later. Yours, Famspear 15:58, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Regarding the removed quote above: The term "Any state tax enforcement agency" covers a lot of ground, but I can offer my experience on the states I deal with frequently.

California FTB does not care what credentials a taxpayer's representative has, as long as the taxpayer gives them Power of Attorney to represent them. I suspect that many states work in this manner.

In my home state of Oregon, we are unique in that every individual tax return preparer of any number tax returns of who is not an attorney or a CPA must be licensed by a separate state licensing board. Enrolled Agents are not exempt. There are two levels of licensing, and to represent a taxpayer before the Oregon DOR, the representative must be an Attorney, a CPA, or a Licensed Tax Consultant, the more advanced of the two state designations. So the above verbiage is clearly incorrect, but Oregon notwithstanding, I suspect the answer is more that anyone can represent a taxpayer before the state taxing authorities. Bryan2000 01:04, 25 December 2006 (UTC)

Dear Bryan2000: Thanks for the update. Based on your commentary and that of user Jmarsh48, and on the fact that the verbiage was inserted by a user back on 13 July 2006 -- a user whose unregistered IP address shows no other edits at all in Wikipedia, and who obviously has not provided any sourcing -- I agree that the verbiage in question has been thoroughly discredited. Yours, Famspear 04:29, 25 December 2006 (UTC)