February 25, 2008, 11:09 am
Stop Overpaying the IRS
This month's cover story gives advice on how to avoid overpaying the IRS. Have you ever been audited? Are you an organized record keeper? Share all your tax season survival tips.
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Justin Martin’s article in the March 2008 issue of Fortune Small Business was generally well written, although some clarifying details were omitted, possibly by an editor not familiar with those details.
However, not once in his article did Mr. Martin mention Enrolled Agents, the only Federally Approved Tax Practitioners. CPA’s and attorneys normally get their credentials from their state of residence, not the Federal government. Enrolled Agents get their credential from the IRS upon successfully passing an examination every bit as difficult as CPA or Bar examinations. For more detail as to what an Enrolled Agent really is and is qualified to do, we suggest you go to the website of the National Association of Enrolled Agents, http://www.naea.org . There you will find that EA’s as well as CPA’s and attorneys are authorized to represent taxpayers before the IRS and are truly Tax Professionals as tax is their only business.
We would encourage the author and all readers to find out what Enrolled Agents are and do.