Wyntax

What’s an EA?

Wyntax is led by an Enrolled Agent. This kind of license is issued by the IRS, and despite an estimated 87,000 practicing EAs nationwide, it’s probably a credential you’ve never heard of.

An EA is admitted by examination. The Special Enrollment Examination, or SEE, contains three parts covering individual tax, business tax, and tax practice and procedure. The license has a federal jurisdiction and carries unlimited practice rights, meaning an EA can represent any taxpayer before any IRS office on any matter (income, payroll, gift and estate, etc.).

The question an EA gets most often is, “how is an Enrolled Agent different from a CPA?” Foremost, CPAs are licensed state-by-state, with each state having different requirements for licensure. The CPA license is also broad, covering accounting generally: audit, assurance, financial reporting, tax and more. The nationwide EA license is focused and covers tax only. They’re built for different jobs, and many CPAs choose a non-tax specialty within the broad universe of accounting. EAs know tax, and know they want to practice tax.

At Wyntax, in practice, the EA license means the person who prepares your return is the same person who answers a notice about it.

History of the Enrolled Agent

  1. 1862

    Congress creates the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue and the first federal income tax, to pay for the Civil War.

  2. 1884

    The Horse Act. After the war, citizens filed claims against the government for livestock and property the Union Army had commandeered, and a great many of those claims were invented, filed by agents working on commission. Congress responded by regulating the agents rather than the claims, imposing background and character requirements. That statute is the ancestor of the license.

  3. 1913

    The Sixteenth Amendment makes the income tax permanent, and the work shifts from war claims to tax disputes.

  4. 1921

    Treasury issues Circular 230, governing who may practice before the IRS and how. It still governs EA practice today.

  5. 1959

    The Special Enrollment Examination is introduced.

  6. 1966

    Treasury formally adopts the title "Enrolled Agent."

  7. 1972

    The National Association of Enrolled Agents is founded.

  8. Today

    The three-part exam is still administered annually, and EAs must complete continuing education to maintain the license: 72 hours every three years, including ethics each year.