Professionally, I am an Enrolled Agent (EA). An EA is a tax practitioner regulated by the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility who has technical expertise in the field of taxation and can represent taxpayers with IRS and most states the same as an attorney or CPA. To become an EA, a person must pass a comprehensive examination or have worked at the IRS for at least five years in a professional position.

I retired from IRS after 35 years as a Revenue Officer in the Collection Division ending my career as one of only 17 revenue officer fraud technical advisers nation-wide.

Most tax practitioners, be they EA's, CPA's, attorneys or tax chain worker bees concentrate on preparing tax returns, doing tax planning and representing clients in audits. I do that to for many of my clients but my specialty, which most of my counterpart hate and few practice, is representing clients who have large unpaid tax liabilities or a series or delinquent returns where IRS files for them with bad results or just general messes that they can't unravel.

Preparing an Offer in Compromise, Collection Information Statement or other IRS paperwork requires doing it the way IRS collection people want it done. This is often 180 degrees off of what are generally accepted accounting principals.

Away from the office I am secretary of the Big Valley Chapter of the California Society of Enrolled Agents. During Tax Season I am a volunteer quality reviewer for the AARP Tax Aide Program.