The Essence of Representation: A New Era for Enrolled Agents and the EA Journal

Enrolled agents (EAs) perform many tasks, including preparing tax returns, bookkeeping, managing payroll, advising taxpayers and businesses, running firms, training staff, educating colleagues, keeping the taxpaying public informed, serving as civic leaders, and more.

But the defining function of the EA credential is representation. Congress created the EA credential in 1884 to help citizens prepare claims against the United States government to recover property confiscated during the American Civil War. Almost 40 years later, the Treasury Department published Circular 230, establishing rules governing “persons representing taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS),” including attorneys, certified public accountants (CPAs), and EAs.

Representation is the cornerstone of the EA’s identity and the central theme of this issue. Whether it’s assisting business owners in resolving and preventing payroll tax issues, as Robert Nordlander, CPA, illustrates, or alleviating late-filing penalties, as David Woods, EA, USTCP, demonstrates, or advocating for the tax profession before the IRS, as Jerry Gaddis, EA, recounts, we firmly stand up for taxpayers.

And now I have the honor and privilege of standing up for our profession by serving as the new editor-in-chief of the award-winning EA Journal. I offer sincere thanks to Tynisa Gaines, EA, the outgoing editor-in-chief, as well as Thomas Gorczynski, EA, USTCP, her predecessor. I consider both of them colleagues, mentors, friends, and grEAt representatives of the EA community.

I look forward to working with the editorial team—Janelle, Brandy, Meg, and MAD Creative—as well as the EA Journal advisory board: Ty, Mary Beth, Fred, Desmond, and Patrick.

And I encourage you to represent your credential, your firm, your community, your clients, and your profession by contributing to the discussions of issues affecting EAs, whether it’s on the WebBoard, in the National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) Facebook group, at an NAEA or state chapter/affiliate event, or in the pages of this publication