Standing Strong in a Changing System
As enrolled agents (EAs), you are more than tax preparers – you are critical players in the nation’s tax administration system. Your work supports compliance, eases taxpayer burdens, and upholds the integrity of the tax code. In a time of rapid transformation within the Internal Rev...
The EA Journal Is an Example of Excellence
I want to take this time to direct you back to page 3 and review the list of names in the masthead and join me in giving a huge shout out to the incredibly talented team that creates the EA Journal. It’s a Herculean task, and without the efforts of our managing editor, edit...
No Crystal Ball Needed Here
A few months ago, an Intuit advertising (ad) campaign raised concerns from National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) members and other tax professionals. The tax professional community was rightfully upset with the message and the tone of the campaign and the NAEA, along with o... Megan Killian
The EA’s Role in Fighting Misinformation About Taxes
I recently had a conversation with a reporter who was asking about the latest tax credit scam being promoted on social media. She wanted to know why this was happening and how it could be fixed. While the second question is tougher to answer, we all know why this is happening. This ... Megan Killian
Are Enrolled Agents Finally Having a Moment?
I am going off this issue’s EA Journal topic because I can’t wait to tell you what I am seeing and hearing. The secret is out about enrolled agents (EAs). The decades-long struggle to get some respect and awareness in the marketplace is making some headway. Enrolled agen... Megan Killian
The “EA” as an International Credential?
The number of enrolled agents (EAs) in India has grown from 673 in 2017 to 2,262 in 2023. Enrolled agents in India now make up 3.1 percent of all enrolled agents. What’s driving this growth and how does it impact the EA profession, EA firms and employers, and the professional organi... Megan Killian
What Does Inclusion Mean?
Once upon a time, there was a young naïve woman who was working for a large organization based in a big city. Having been raised in the suburbs in a relatively homogeneous community, she was not very knowledgeable about diversity. It was the early aughts, so it wasn’t really somethi... Megan Killian
Advocacy and Representation Within Our Association
Each National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) member has a unique perspective and a distinctive voice. This diversity is what makes our association stronger and more powerful. We strive to build and support an organization that truly represents the enro... Megan Killian
Big Changes Require Strong Ethics
“ Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.” – Victor Hugo The National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) Code of Ethics clarifies roles and responsibilities within a profession and provides g...
Come for the CE, Stay for the Community
I recently put out an SOS for assistance from our members. It was the beginning of tax season, and I knew it was a big ask. But I was in a bind, and it was something that only a tax expert could help with. Several members came to my aid, and they did it quickly and without complaint... Megan Killian
Bigger Bases and Pitch Timers
I recently listened to an interview with the Phillies announcer about the changes to Major League Baseball (MLB) that will be implemented next season. I should note that I am not really a baseball enthusiast (unless the Phillies are in the World Series!), but this conversat... Megan Killian
It Is Election Season and Your Vote Counts
By the time you read this, the midterm elections will likely already be over. Whatever the outcome, the next Congress will have a critical impact on tax administration and the enrolled agent (EA) profession. As new legislators take office in early 2023, one of the first thi... Megan Killian
Collaboration and Partnership Creates Success for All
No organization is completely self-sustaining. Businesses of all sizes and scope rely on services and support from other entities. Even sole practitioners need to engage with others to perform their services. The power of relationships fuels associations like the National Associa...
The Fight Continues Today and Every Day
The success in Minnesota was a big win for enrolled agents (EAs). For two years, the National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) worked with various state agencies, lobbyists, attorneys, and other stakeholders to reverse a mistake that would have been detrimental to the ...
Taxes and Disco at the Summer Event
The national conference was one of the National Association of Enrolled Agents’ (NAEA) signature events for years. Drawing, at its height, close to 800 attendees, it was the event for education, networking, and (even) a little bit of fun. In 2022, we are bringing back al... Megan Killian
Health and Wellness During Busy Season
It may not seem like a priority when you have deadlines, client demands, family obligations, and other priorities right now, but consider adding self-care to your priority list. If the last two years has any silver linings, it is the increasing awareness of mental and ph... Megan Killian
Service, Celebration, and Evolution
As we know it, the official birthdate of the National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) is June 27, 1972, when the founders gathered and elected the first board in Hawthorne, California. But, as NAEA member Bess Messner noted in NAEA’s 20th anniversary book, ... Megan Killian
Setting the Path
Like many organizations, the pandemic has forced the National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) to reassess, reprioritize, and reimagine. Business as usual has been disrupted on all levels: from the way we collaborate and communicate as a team internally to how we engag... Megan Killian
NAEA Members Win Big in Vegas
More than 150 National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) members and guests braved the Las Vegas heat in July to attend the Special Topics Workshop, our first live event in 19 months. Some came for the content, some came for the location, but almost everyone came for th... Megan Killian
Transitions and New Beginnings
I was jarred awake early one morning a couple months ago by the sound of chainsaws. Not necessarily a unique sound in my neighborhood in the spring as it seems everyone is having work done in or outside his or her home. But these chainsaws were taking down a tree. A very la... Megan Killian
What Is Next?
There is light at the end of the tunnel. But the pandemic will certainly leave its mark and change how we do things in the future. The slow return to some normalcy is coming, and in some cases, is already here. Hopefully, all of you have seen friends and loved ones you have... Megan Killian
Cooperation, Collaboration, and Community
I am writing this at the beginning of my third week as the new executive vice president of NAEA. To say it has been a whirlwind the past few weeks would be an understatement. But with all new roles, there is so much to learn, there are relationships to build, and policies a... Megan Killian
Honing Your Entrepreneurial Spirit
The age old axiom, “The only constant in life is change,” is abundantly true. I have had an opportunity to analyze how much NAEA has changed since the spring of 2015 when I moved to another organization. I barely recognize any of the staff. The Board is comprised of many new faces. T... Michael Nelson
Will You Do Your Part?
In the midst of the pandemic as well as in the crucible of an exceedingly partisan political climate, it is human to want to throw your hands up in the air and feign disinterest. Often it appears as if a single voter or an individual member cannot make a difference. Yet, nothing is fart... Michael Nelson
Building a Cathedral…
During 2020, a year I wouldn’t want to relive professionally or personally for a number of reasons, I kept my foot to the floor by focusing on the two most important issues: 1. Readying NAEA for the next step on its journey. 2. Driving value by nurturing the enrolled agent community.... Robert A. Kerr, EA
Demand Better
Ordinarily, we wouldn’t be dropping on your doorstep (or laptop) with two weeks remaining in the filing season. These are not ordinary times, however, and we’ve been forced as a profession and an organization to adapt, rapidly. I couldn’t be more proud of what I’ve seen on our membe... Robert A. Kerr, EA
It Is Not Because Things Are Difficult…
Whether you put aside EA Journal through the filing season or whether you make time for us along the way, welcome back. On top of the usual tax law changes, security concerns, and software troubles—which were for some significant — the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the ... Robert A. Kerr, EA
There’s No Crying in Tax Prep
Our readers fall into two buckets, those who read the March/April issue when it arrives and those who catch up later in the year. The magazine reflects this reality as well, as does this message. For those of you reading this when it falls on your doorstep (as the son of a postman, I have a rather romantic notion of mail delivery), the message is this: What gift are you going to give your future self? You are learning things during this fi... Robert A. Kerr
Faster Horses
Happy New Year! Typically the greeting—or exhortation— causes people to consider resolutions, which can range from the expected (my annual favorite: lose 15 pounds) to the sublime (change the world). As tax professionals, we ask different questions when we face a new year, and they are mostly centered on preparation for t... Robert A. Kerr, EA
Joy in the Doing
Holiday prep, for tax professionals, is inevitably something approached with mixed emotions. The holidays— whichever ones you celebrate, however ... Robert A. Kerr, EA
Focus + Determination = Success
Shortly after I left IRS, the agency came up with a new slogan: Service + Enforcement = Compliance. Not bad. Not great—not “We love to fly and it shows” but at least not “We love to tax and lien measure our hold time in hours and it shows,” either. Wags with fundamental math ski... Robert A. Kerr, EA
It’s All Greek to Me
Monks in the Middle Ages (rather than middle-aged monks, which would be something else entirely), many of whom served as scribes, would say Graecum est; non legitur (“it is Greek, [therefore] it cannot be read”). Tax professionals, particularly in the wake of the Tax Cuts and Jobs ... Robert A. Kerr, EA
Your Guess Is as Good as Mine
Part one of the filing season is behind us. The extensions we have with us always, to paraphrase The Good Book. If I learned anything this season, I learned EAs are professionals who are paid to know things, not to think or feel things. When our clients come to us for advice and services, we need to resi... Robert A. Kerr
The Cruelest Month
T.S. Eliot once famously wrote April is the cruelest month—one would think him a tax professional and not a poet. In our business, March, though, vies for the title. And this March, as we roll up our sleeves and put last year’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) continuing education to w... Robert A. Kerr, EA
Making a Difference
NAEA is an organization of like-minded individuals who have come together to build a community and who would like to make a difference in their profession. NAEA makes a difference in a number of ways, both large and small. For instance, this issue includes info... Robert A. Kerr, EA