If you want to become a pro-tax preparer, then you have to become an enrolled agent. EA provides a high-level tax preparation service. The job profile of EA isn’t very commonly know to everyone, thus not many people know what are the perfect skills that require to become an EA.

Who is an EA?

An enrolled agent is a fella who has gained the privilege of representing the taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service by either passing a three-part comprehensive IRS test covering individual and business tax returns or through experience as a former IRS employee. The job status of EAs is higher in the job hierarchy of the IRS department. The person who is competent enough to obtain the title of enrolled agent must have to follow a standard ethical decorum and should complete 72 hours of educational courses after every three years.

EAs have job profile is something similar to the attorneys and certified public accountants. That means EAs don’t have to follow any kind of restrictions regarding which taxpayers they can represent, what type of tax matters they can handle and at which IRS offices they can represent their clients. Overall, EAs are considered as influential persons in the tax office. And, every competent tax preparation service providing company like CapActix has EAs appointed to handle tax operations effectively.

What Does an EA Do?

The work profile of an EA includes preparing the taxes for clients. As the name suggests, EA acts as the agents of their clients in representing them before the IRS. They are authorized to speak on the behalf of their clients, argue with IRS authorities and make appeals. Thus, in tax matters, EAs have almost all the powers that CPAs have. However, as the CPAs licenses are issued by the state governments, thus the features in their certificates are limited that to EAs certifications.

Skills of Enrolled Agents

If you want to grow in your career as an enrolled agent, then you have to develop a certain set of skills. That’s because it is a high profile job, thus to grow in your career, you must have certain skills.

Skill 1. Good Communicator

An enrolled agent has to communicate with clients regularly. EAs have to understand the requirements of their clients and offer them ideal solutions. On the top, they have to communicate with the IRS and represent the argument in favor of their clients. Now, if in this, EAs don’t have good communication skills, then they won’t be able to offer the services to the expectation of the clients. Thus, enrolled agents need to work on improving their communication skills.

Skill 2. Vast Knowledge Bank

The job of EA is to represent a client in front of the IRS, in case of any issue in the tax report. To present a compelling case in front of the tax authorities, EAs need to stay updated with all the latest tax laws and reforms. EAs should constantly increase their knowledge by participating in the continuing professional education courses conducted by federal and state taxation authorities.

Apart from academic knowledge, EAs need to work on improving their technical and general knowledge regarding the tax authorities as well. They should read all the latest tax and accounting news or join forums to stay connected with fellow EAs. Knowledge is the ultimate key to success for the EAs.

Skill 3. Business Sense

To grow in a career, EAs need to have a sense of business acumen. With business management and leadership skills, EAs can handle the senior-level responsibilities in the organization. They can manage their subordinates and clients better with advanced business expertise. EA with business knowledge can compile wide company performance reports and give strong perspectives.

The business management skills of the EAs can help them in understanding their client’s company and draw better arguments to present. They will have a better understanding of how different departments work and function. This helps EAs in the long run and bring success way quicker in their careers.

Skill 4. Auditorial Training

EAs need to be highly versatile in the skills department because they have to step into numerous roles and the role of the auditor is one of the prominent ones. Possessing auditorial skills is very important for EAs as it’s part of their basic qualifying exam. With the additional auditing training, EAs can evaluate the performance and methodologies of a workplace.

On the top, it is a good career move for enrolled agents as internal auditors are in high demand, thus they can expand their career opportunities. They provide additional auditing services to their clients also and increase their monetary opportunities.

Skill 5. Mindful Thinker

EAs have numerous responsibilities on their shoulders, thus they have to develop critical evaluation skills also. When EAs evaluate the present market conditions and make decisions based on future market conditions, then they can represent the best solutions. EAs have to be critical thinkers so that they can provide effective solutions to their clients. Moreover, with predictive thinking skills, they can take concrete actions to grow their career based on real-time data. EAs should master the art of mindful thinking with their experiences.

Enrolled agents play important roles in outsourced tax preparation services, hence these professionals need to possess a variety of skills. Developing advanced skills will benefit the career of EAs in numerous ways. So, if you are preparing to be an enrolled agent, then make sure to develop basic skills in your personality.

CapActix is an outsourced tax preparation company where highly competent and skillful EAs are appointed. So, want to use our outsourced tax preparation services or wish to hire a highly skillful EA for your company, connect with us on email – [email protected]. or can call on +201-778-0509.