Guidance on Continuing Education for Enrolled Agents

To qualify for continuing education credit a program of learning must be designed to enhance an enrolled agent’s professional proficiency in Federal taxation or Federal tax related matters. This can include accounting programs, substantive tax programs and/or ethics programs.

The field(s) of study must include subjects dealing with federal tax compliance, tax planning, or tax controversies. Compliance includes, among other things, tax return preparation and review, ruling requests and protests. Tax planning focuses on applying federal tax rules to prospective transactions and understanding the tax implication of unusual or complex transactions.  Tax controversies involve representation during examination and collection matters.

Enrolled agents already possess certain educational and technical skills.  Therefore, the objective of a continuing education provider in presenting acceptable continuing education programs should be to enhance or strengthen skills commensurate with the level of professional competence of the enrolled agent.  The following types of programs do not meet this objective:

1. Programs designed to help prepare for the Special Enrollment Examination.
2. Basic programs in the area of tax geared toward the general public with which an enrolled agent should already be familiar.
3. Programs not directly related to Federal taxation or Federal tax related matters such as, personal development, personal investments, office management, general computer software or sales-oriented presentations for office equipment and other system applications.

In accordance with the Department of the Treasury Circular 230 Section 10.6, in order for an individual to maintain eligibility to practice before the Internal Revenue Service a minimum of 72 hours of continuing education credits must be completed during each enrollment cycle. (Note: a minimum of 16 hours of continuing education credits and 2 hours of ethics or professional conduct credits must be completed during each enrollment year of an enrollment cycle.)

Common terms:

Enrollment year: Is the period between January 1^st and December 31^st of each year of an enrollment cycle. (Note: a more common term used is “calendar year.”)

Enrollment cycle: Is the three successive enrollment years preceding the effective date of renewal.

Source: http://www.irs.gov/taxpros/agents/article/0,,id=123418,00.html