Darrin Mish: Hello. My name's Darrin Mish, and I'm a tax attorney, based in Tampa, Florida. My practice revolves exclusively around the resolution of IRS Tax problems and tax planning for clients around the United States and throughout the globe.

I made these videos to answer some questions that I get asked on a routine basis about whether or not I should hire an Enrolled Agent, and if I should, what questions should I ask him or her before I decide whether or not I should hire the Enrolled Agent. So, I went ahead and made these four videos with a total of 20 questions regarding whether or not you should hire an Enrolled Agent or not.

The first question for this video is, do they have a post graduate degree? Now, I talked in an earlier video about whether or not they had a college degree or not. I think that it's an important question. But, do they have a post graduate degree? Is that the be all, end all? No, it's not. Is a law degree the be all, end all? No, absolutely, it's not. But, I think a post graduate degree does show, again, a willingness to stick with a goal and to follow it in, all the way through to the end.

Now, if they have a post graduate degree, the odds of them quitting your case because they can't figure out how to solve it, I think, are relatively slim. People who have post graduate degrees tend to be the type of people, they're fighters. They stick with it, and they go to the bitter end.

So, if your Enrollment Agent doesn't have a post graduate degree, it's not the be all, end all, it's not something that should preclude you from deciding whether or not you should hire them, but it's something that I think you should consider.

The next question is are they a skilled advocate, or a number cruncher? I alluded to that in an earlier video, I think that's really important. How many number cruncher, bean counter type people have you ever actually met at cocktail parties that you wanted to hang around with? Not very many; at least I haven't.

And the reason, I think, is those skill sets, the skill set of being able to crunch the numbers and the skill set of being able to be a people person, be a skilled advocate, are separate skill sets, and they're skill sets that are very hard to maintain. We have number cruncher, bean counter types in our firm. But, those are not the people who are going to be in charge of resolving your case. And they're not going to be in charge of the communication with the IRS. And I think that that's really important.

So, you have to think about whether your Enrolled Agent is a bean counter type person, or if they're a personable type person. And when you're meeting with them or speaking with them on the phone, something that I think you ought to consider, because I think it's an important question, if they're going to be communicating with the IRS about your case, they're going to probably be doing it either verbally or in writing.

Those are different skill sets too, from each other. But, I have not found that very many number cruncher, bean counter type people are actually skilled in writing, or skilled verbally in being verbally tracip. So, that's another question.

Even though they're licensed to represent clients throughout the United States, and by the say, so are attorneys, if they're licensed in any state, they can represent clients in any state. And CPAs, if they're licensed in any state, can represent clients in any state for Federal IRS problem resolution matters.

But, EAs like to make a big deal, we're the only federally licensed professionals who actually can represent clients throughout the United States. That's balderdash, that's hogwash. That's something that they're trying to use to set themselves apart, because the public, quite frankly, doesn't even understand what an Enrolled Agent is, so they have an uphill battle there.

Does your tax professional, your Enrolled Agent, that you're considering hiring, do they attract clients from around the country? From around the globe? Or from down the street? If they're only attracting clients from down the street, I think you might want to consider driving down a different street, or doing a little bit more research, because there's probably a reason why they're not widely sought after to handle IRS Problem cases. Just a thought.

The last question for today, actually, we have two. I want you to think about what is their reputation like? Do they have a reputation in the wider community as being a skilled expert, skilled practitioner? Something to think about.

A little test that you can do is Google their name. Go to Google.com, type in their name. Put it in quotes if you have to, You really shouldn't have to, but if you have to put their name in quotes, put it in quotes, and see which websites come up. Is there buzz about that practitioner? Or worse, is there nothing? Are there negative comments about that practitioner, or again, do they come up at all?

Now, DNS is not the only thing; it's not the be all, end all. But, it's just one of the many factors that you need to think about when you decide whether or not you should hire an Enrolled Agent or any other tax type practitioner to handle your IRS Problem case.

This question is a little bit maybe impolite for me to ask, but I'm going to go ahead and do it on your behalf anyway. If Enrolled Agents are so skilled in taxation, why didn't they just get a CPA degree, or why didn't they take the CPA exam, I should say. Do you know what the answer is? Because the CPA exam is harder than the Enrolled Agent exam. And I don't think even Enrolled Agents would doubt that.

Personally, I don't know how either one compares to the Bar Exam, but I have to tell you, the Bar Exam was quite a challenging endeavor, in and of itself. Now, of course there's a lot of things on the Bar Exam that don't have anything to do with taxation, but there's a lot of things on the Enrolled Agent exam that have nothing to do with representing IRS problem clients too.

And I know one thing's for sure, in EA school... Oh, yeah. There is no such thing as an EA school. Maybe there's a prep class to take the exam. There were no classes on advocacy. There were no classes telling the EAs actually how to communicate with people, and how to win a case.