February 3, 2006

Mr. Cono Namorato
Director, Office of Professional Responsibility
Internal Revenue Service
1111 Constitution Avenue, Northwest
Washington, District of Columbia 20224

Dear Mr. Namorato:

As president of the National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA), I write on behalf of approximately 40,000 enrolled agents (EAs) nationwide.  The purpose of this letter is to share our concern with the 2006 Special Enrollment Examination (SEE) and to urge OPR to commit swiftly and publicly to a traditional paper-and-pencil 2006 SEE. 

In early January, IRS announced the long-awaited award of a contract to write and administer the SEE.  Shortly after IRS announced the contract award, a vendor lodged a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  GAO has until April 17th to reach a final determination on this protest.

We are troubled by the implications of this delay.  At a pre-competition vendor meeting with IRS procurement officials and OPR staff, vendors indicated that the contract winner would need at least six months to construct the test bed and perfect the test administration.  This would move the 2006 test administration to at the earliest late October, and any delays could slide the initial test availability by an unknown period.  At a recent NPL meeting, however, we received even worse news from an OPR staff member who indicated that a test may not be forthcoming until December 2006 or early 2007.  We believe that the December holidays would result in significantly fewer test takers for any December test and we are certain that a January or February 2007 administration would elicit a low response because of its competition with many EA candidates’ participation in the filing season.

The crux of our concern is there are too many unknowns in the process.  OPR does not know with any certainty when the eventual contract awardee will be in a position to offer the 2006 SEE.  Worse yet, it is reasonable to state that OPR cannot say with any degree of certainty if the eventual awardee will be able to produce an examination in time for a reasonable 2006 administration. 

In the interim, thousands of potential enrolled agents are in limbo.  If they do not know when the examination will be administered, or in what format it will be administered, they cannot prepare for the exam.  And prepare they must—only approximately 30% of last year’s applicants passed the test (and any number of the successful test takers required more than one year to pass all four parts).

This ambiguity is profoundly troubling for several reasons.  First, it leaves the impression that IRS is uninterested in turnout for the enrolled agent examination, and leaves open the charge that the SEE outsourcing was simply a ruse to kill the enrolled agent program.  Further, those who have taken the current version of the test and have only to pass one or two parts are exceedingly interested in knowing whether they can make one more paper-and-pencil attempt at the license.  Moreover, OPR, by its own admission, does not promote the examination.  Promotion is, to put it kindly, ad hoc.  Our organization has for years promoted the exam through a variety of venues (e.g., mobilizing our state affiliate network to hold multi-session test preparation and encouraging employees and colleagues to sit for the exam).  In an environment in which OPR is not positioned to provide adequate advance warning of 2006 SEE specifics, the promotion that we and others provide becomes exceedingly difficult, if not impossible.

On behalf of current EAs and EA candidates, I urge OPR to bite the bullet and commit swiftly and publicly to another paper-and-pencil examination to be given in its traditional timeframe (e.g., the third week in September).  Should the eventual contract awardee be able to administer the new SEE sometime in 2006, so much the better.  The critical issue is that potential EAs deserve the right to at least one opportunity every 12 months to demonstrate their competency by taking the Special Enrollment Examination.  For that administration to be meaningful, those interested in promoting the SEE must have time to do so, and those interested in taking the exam must have adequate time in which to prepare as well as a reasonable test date.

NAEA has been excited about and supportive of OPR’s efforts to modernize the SEE administration, particularly given the opportunity to offer the exam more than once a year and for potential EAs to learn their scores immediately, rather than waiting three months as they currently do.  On behalf of NAEA’s members and Enrolled Agents nationwide, I look forward to working with you on this issue as well as to the pleasure of your response.

Sincerely,
 
Francis X. Degen, EA
President