Tax Accountants

I was planning on hiring a tax CPA and I found some very useful information on the website of Joe Mastriano CPA, here’s a interesting quote from his website at www.taxproblem.org:

I’ve visited web sites of Enrolled Agents (EA) who attempt to compare themselves with CPA’s and Attorneys. They claim that EAs are licensed by the IRS and not individual states. Since the IRS is federal, they are better able to represent you. That is false. I’ve also found a state society of EAs website that makes very misleading statements concerning CPAs. Somehow they try to say that CPAs are involved in matters other than the IRS, and EAs only deal with the IRS. They try to make you think that CPAs are less suited to represent taxpayers before the IRS. The truth is, EAs who work for the IRS for about 5-6 years are given their EA license when they leave, without ever taking the exam! The people who do take the exam, only need a high school education! Granted, the exam is very hard, and comprehensive. Sitting for the CPA exam requires more hours of accounting and related courses than is required for an undergraduate degree! Attorneys spend 3 years in law school! Comparatively, EAs have way less education.

If you need more information about selecting tax accountants you should search our site.

The respective state boards regulate the conduct of CPAs and attorneys. Each month they produce reports showing who lost or may soon be losing their professional license. An enrolled agent is not an accredited profession. It is a government issued license that the government regulates. Other then obvious criminal convictions, I’ve yet to hear about an EA who lost their license! I can go on and on, but I think you get the idea. As with any person you hire, an enrolled agent with the right case and tax experience, tax education, and professional judgment should be able to do an excellent job. I’d stay away from any company claiming to have an unfair advantage because they are an EA. Actually, anyone bragging about an advantage because of anything less than their knowledge, experience, education, and an accredited professional license, would make me very suspicious.

I love this guy’s website, all you need to know about taxes and the IRS is available freely on his website, and he also has a comment section where he provides quick tips and advice to his users. I only needed some tax legal advice so I called his secretary and arranged a one hour paid consultancy so he can go over my situation with me.