Enrolled Agents are the only tax representatives who must prove their competence directly to the IRS. Where attorneys can specialize in a number of areas, Enrolled Agents specialize only in taxation, making them the go-to representative for your preparation and representation needs. Also, Enrolled Agents can represent you in any US state and must undergo a background check every three years.

As diffrentiated from other Tax Professionals, an Enrolled agent is a somebody (designated as an EA) who has unlimited practice rights before the IRS. .An EA obtains this credentials by passing a 3-part Special Enrollment Examination or earned through experience working at IRS.

Enrolled Agents are also the only professional that, by virtue of their passing the testing and enrolling, to automatically be enabled to represent any taxpayer in the US, regardless of state. I look at EA's as the mainstay of tax representation in the US because, like a specialist in medicine, that is their specialization. Unfortunately, with the advent of RTRP's (registered Tax Return Preparers) and the lack of marketing of the EA brand, people will always have an incorrect or no impression at all of what an EA's true value is.