6 Mistakes to avoid with EA CE
Is your CE provider authorized by the IRS?
EAs are regulated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on a national basis. In other words EA’s in every state are subject to the same IRS regulations.
The IRS requires CPE providers to register annually by December 31st for the following year. IRS CPE providers agree to follow the IRS CPE regulations and to report all valid CPE earned by any PTIN holder to the IRS.
Things to look for:
IRS CE Provider number
Providers are issued an IRS CPE provider number. Additionally, each course is submitted to the IRS and issued an IRS course number. This IRS course number is used for reporting the course completions to the IRS and must be printed on the certificate of completion issued to the student.
IRS Approved CE Provider logo
The IRS provides a logo to approved CPE providers that can be displayed on a website or printed material. Example of the logo:
IRS listing of approved CE Providers
The IRS maintains an online list of approved CE providers here.
Can’t find the provider you are looking for on the IRS listing?
Keep in mind that the CE Provider’s website name can be different from the company name. For FunCPE, both the company name and the website name are the same.
To avoid bias, the list of approved CE providers is in random order when you first go to this page on the website.
- You can click on the headings to sort the list in provider order, for example, to find a particular provider.
- Or you can use control F on your keyboard to bring up a search box, and enter a provider name there.
Enrolled Agents have a national license
Enrolled agent education is subject to IRS regulation on a nationwide basis.
Therefore it doesn’t matter what state your CPE provider is located in. IRS CE providers are approved on a national basis to provide CE for EAs in every state, as well as EAs located out of the country. By contrast, CPAs and Attorneys are licensed by state and often have state specific CPE requirements.
What about tax preparer state licensing?
The following states require tax preparers to be licensed by the state:
- California
- Maryland
- Oregon
- New York
Generally, Enrolled Agents, CPAs and Attorneys are exempt from the state specific tax preparer licensing.
Read about another mistake
Mistake # 1
CE provider not IRS approved
Mistake # 2
Courses not for approved subject
Mistake # 3
Course format not acceptable
Mistake # 4
CE taken in wrong time period
Mistake # 5
CE Courses not reported to the IRS
Mistake # 6
EA fails to review PTIN account