Enrolled agent
federally authorized tax practitioner empowered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to represent taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service
In the United States, an enrolled agent (EA) is a tax advisor, specifically a federally authorized tax practitioner who, after passing a three-part Special Enrollment Examination, has been licensed and empowered by the Internal Revenue Service, a division of the United States Department of the Treasury. Enrolled agents, acting as attorneys-in-fact, may represent taxpayers before the IRS for any and all tax matters. This is in addition to providing traditional tax preparation, filing, and transmittal services.
Enrolled agent status is the highest credential awarded by the IRS. According to the National Association of Enrolled Agents, there are approximately 87,000 practicing EAs in the United States.
History
The position of enrolled agent was created as a reaction to fraudulent war loss claims in the wake of the American Civil War with roots tracing back to the General Deficiency Act of July 7, 1884, or General Deficiency Appropriation Bill (H.R. 2735), also known as the "Horse Act of 1884", which was signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur on July 7, 1884. After the Civil War, many citizens faced difficulties in settling claims with the government for property confiscated for use in the war effort. As a result, Congress endowed enrolled agents with the power of advocacy to prepare claims against the government. From 1884 through the early 20th century, this statute remained largely unchanged.
When the Revenue Act of 1913 was passed, signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on October 3, 1913, the scope of the enrolled agent was expanded to include claims for monetary relief for citizens whose taxes had become inequitable. As income, estate, gift and other sources of tax collections became more complex, the role of the enrolled agent increased to include the preparation of the many tax forms that were required.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Enrolled agent” as federally authorized tax practitioner empowered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to represent taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5367303. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1884 and 1913.
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This entry incorporates text from “Enrolled agent” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.