Michael T Wing CPA wrote:
- quote -

Yes. The one I met at last year's CPE (and had lunch with)
was a PA and did NOT get a CPA license, nor was such
automatic. He's probably one of the last ones left
considering when the change took effect and that only
renewals have occurred since. However, his license does
meet the requirement of being exempt from California's Tax
Preparer licensing requirement (which applies to anyone not
one of the "big 3" [which includes those with applications
pending]).

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D. Stussy <kd6lvw[at]bde-arc.ampr.org> wrote:

- quote -

Are those guys still licensed as PAs (and not as CPAs)? In
my state, all of the LPAs (as they were called up here) were
automatically promoted to CPA status a few years ago, and
thus no one actually holds an LPA license at this time. (The
state board indicated that less than 50 individuals were
involved.)

MTW

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- quote -

I have no doubt on that issue. The state's position is NOT
enforcable on account of the 10th Amendment. As long as the
E.A. designation remains a federal designation, the states
cannot interfere with it (the power to grant and regulate
having been reserved to the United States government
itself).

- quote -

That could be a problem.

- quote -

In this respect, it would be interesting to see if the IRS
accepts a pre-1950 California PA (not a CPA - the
requirements were different) authority to practice on the
basis of being a PA - even though no such licenses have been
issued for 53 years. I actually met ONE at a CPE last year.
He got his license when he was in his early 20's and he's
now in his 70's - so yes, they still exist!

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Larry Mitchell, E.A. wrote:
- quote -

Not totally correct. The statutes (in title 31) and CFR's
indicate practice before the ENTIRE Treasury Dept.
Authority is not limited to in front of the IRS. Remember
your history: Enrolled Agents were first instituted (in
1885?) to limit Civil War reparations claims - something
that had NOTHING to do with the Bureau of Internal Revenue
(as it was called back then).

Granted that 99% of all EA practice is in front of the IRS,
.....

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- quote -

Actually, one practical problem arises from state
accountancy laws--many of them have "hard coded" statutory
exceptions protecting the use of the EA designation as not
being deemed to be potentially confusing with that of a CPA.
While I have my doubts about the enforcability of a
provision that would stop someone from advertising a
designation issued by the IRS, reality is that this problem,
coupled with the fact that state legislatures don't move
terribly quickly and/or bog down bills with unrelated
issues, makes changing the name more of a problem than you
might expect.

On a related note--many states also have similarly "hard
coded" language about authorization to practice before state
taxing authorities. In that case, the problem might not go
away as easily, especially if there was *ANY* change in the
requirements to become the new "not-an-EA" <grin> that might
cause some revenue department to question whether the old
statutue authorized the newly named group to practice before
them.

Note that, similarly, changing the name of CPAs could
present similar problems in federal practice <grin> .

---
Ed Zollars, CPA
Phoenix, Arizona

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Wcm7315 wrote:

- quote -

And you're not just whistling Dixie, either.

So many people refer to me as "their CPA". I always explain
the difference is of course and they say. .. ok, whatever.

On my front desk is a reprint of a rather helpful NAEA
brochure which explains rather well what an EA is. I make
sure all new clients have one of these.

Have thought about "institutional advertising" re Enrolled
Agents maybe along with the other three EA's in our rather
small (pop 40,000) metro community. But then I wonder. We
all have all the business we need, or at least I do, so why
bother?

And the cost for our state society to do anything like that
either via public television, public radio, or the (real)
Yellow pages (tm) is rather prohibitive. (As state
treasurer, I've investigated all the above.)

So, it really remains for individual EA's to get the word
out.

Cheer$,
Harlan LUnsford, EA in LA

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- quote -

While probably not wanting to get into this here, the NAEA
much to my chagrin has an incredible "knee-jerk" reaction
anytime somebody proposes changing the EA name.

The IRS has recently once again started to make noises about
finding a "better or more descriptive designation".

The NAEA spends so much time defending the title and being
in love with it (and trying to cheer us EAs up that it's
really not so bad after all.) that they invariably reject
any change.

Obviously, the opinion of the national organization has some
weight. In other words, if they don't want it changed why
should we bother?

And so it goes....

Charles Markham, EA

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wcm7315[at]aol.com (Wcm7315) wrote:

- quote -


I'm an E.A. and I'm not even sure what an E.A. is.
Whenever someone ask me what an E.A. is, I am always
struggling for 1) a simple, easy to understand answer that
conveys in layman's terms what it is that I do; 2) doesn't
make me sound like an agent of the IRS; and 3) sounds
interesting so they want to talk about it more. Usually I
get a blank stare with an "Uh-huh" followed by "How bout
them vols?"

Larry

================================================== ==========
Moderator:
TRY: An Enrolled Agent is authorized by the Secretary of
the Treasury to represent taxpayers before administrative
levels of the Internal Revenue Service.

NAEA may wish to consider lobbying for a change in
designation, e.g., Enrolled Tax Agent.
================================================== ==========

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I attended the NATP convention in Orlando a couple weeks
ago. One of the presenters spoke about the significance of
the Enrolled Agent designation. One of his main points was
that E.A.'s have a serious identity problem. He asked if we
were aware of the fact that noone other than E.A.'s knows
what an E.A. is, what their qualifications are, and what
they can do. I decided to do a little experiment. In the
past two weeks, I asked 50 people if they knew what an
"Enrolled Agent" was. This group included teachers, two
school principals, insurance agents, construction workers,
my family doctor, three CPA's, and a number of various other
people I run into on a day to day basis. Of the 50, ONE
PERSON was familiar with the designation. The others,
including two of the CPA's, DID NOT HAVE A CLUE what an E.A.
is. We have some work to do with the public, folks.

================================================== ==========
Moderator:
If you think that's bad, go to an Accounting Educators
conference and see how many attendees know.
================================================== ==========

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