I forgot to take my EA CPE hours last year

What happens to your Enrolled Agent license if you forget to take your required CPE hours one year? Or two years? Or three to six years?

Don’t panic right away

This can happen to anyone, and it can be that you just forgot to take the minimum required hours for a year, or it can be due to extenuating circumstance. Some of the common reasons students fail to meet the minimum education requirements are:

Forgot
Got confused about deadlines
Didn’t realize the CPE hours were required starting immediately after receiving the license
Didn’t know that different requirements apply to someone in their Initial Enrollment Period
Personal illness or injury
Family illness or injury
Disaster area (hurricanes, tornados, etc.)
Personal disaster, such as a house fire
Disorganization due to moving
Planned to let license lapse, but then decided to renew
Expected to receive reminder notice from the IRS
Took courses that were not approved subjects
Took courses that weren’t from an approved provider
Didn’t know about FunCPE

These are some of the reasons we’ve heard from our students, and I am sure the IRS has heard even more.

When to panic

If you have not only forgotten to take your CPE courses, but you have also forgotten to send in your renewal Form 8554, you have been automatically placed on inactive status and need to contact the EA Helpline to re-activate.

If you have missed two enrollment cycle renewals (i.e. it has been six years since your last enrollment cycle ended), time to panic because this means your EA license has been terminated and you cannot reactivate.

You will have to retake the Special Enrollment Exam (SEE). And I’ve heard it has gotten harder.

What you CAN’T do

Can’t go back in time

What it comes down to, is you can’t go back in time and make up missed CPE courses.

If you could go back in time, you would just buy shares of Amazon or Apple at the issue prices, and you wouldn’t have to worry about maintaining your EA license.

Since you can’t go back in time, the IRS generally advises you to make up your hours as soon as you become aware of the fact that you have missed some CE hours. Don’t delay on this point, the sooner you can complete your hours, the better.

Feel free to contact us for advice on courses to take or if you have questions.

What you CAN do

Review what is posted to your IRS PTIN account

To verify what CPE credit has been reported to the IRS, you can login to your PTIN account to view the hours. Each year is shown under separate tabs. Review what has been reported to your PTIN account prior to calling the EA Helpline.

You can call the IRS EA Helpline if desired

You can call the EA Helpline to verify what steps you need to take to get current. Calling the IRS does not alert them to the fact that you have missed your deadline for CPE, and it won’t affect the renewal of your license. The IRS is already aware of your situation because the PTIN system contains a history of courses completed and posted by CPE providers.

More monitoring and notifications in the future

Since the IRS does have direct access to your hours reported, as well as your renewal due date, we expect the IRS will start using email to inform EAs of any missing hours as they become apparent.

We also expect the IRS to start sending out reminders of due dates for renewals. In the distant past, the IRS sent out (snail mail) renewal notices, but they discontinued that practice many years ago.

We have also speculated that the renewal will be changed to an annual renewal, and coordinated with the PTIN renewal.

Not sure what to do next?

It has been our experience that most CPE credit deficiencies can be resolved by taking the appropriate courses.

Send us a quick email with some information about your situation and we will promptly get back with you with our advice on how to proceed.

We can recommend a personalized list of courses for you to take. You can keep your license active and move on down the road!

Information we need to assess your situation

Send an email with the following information, and anything else you want us to know:

1) Last digit of your Social Security number, or if you have no Social Security number

2) When you originially received your EA license–if it’s within the last 3 years we need the month and year, otherwise just a ballpark of the year

3) Last renewal date, if you have that information

4) How many CPE hours you have taken so far this period, if any, and whether those hours are posted to your PTIN account

5) Copy of any correspondence received from the IRS about your situation