Passing an exam is the best way to demonstrate your competence, and it is usually the final chapter of a long and rather tedious adventure. For those who spend a lot of time preparing for the enrolled agent exam, the feeding of achievement generated by the successful passing of the test, lingers in memory for many years. The Internal Revenue Service has strict rules for those who want to walk down this career path, and their ea cpe requirements are just as serious.
In order for an enrolled agent to serve his clients, he needs to be very well prepared himself because any error he makes triggers a chain of consequences for the customer. It is always better to prevent than to cure, and this is the reason that enrolled agent cpe is mandatory, and at least 72 hours of training should be completed over three years. The courses include plenty of technical information, as well as sensitive issues related to professional ethics, so that no area is left uncovered.
While the enrolled agents can’t opt out of continuing education, they can choose the courses, and this is in fact, a very important decision. Given the strict ea cpe requirements, they need to make sure that the courses they attend are accredited by the IRS, so that their work will not be in vain. The quality of the information is just as important as the manner in which it is taught to the student, so the courses need to be descriptive and easy to comprehend.