IRS: minimum 16 hours annually, 72 hours every 3 years. FFA recommends taking 24 hours annually to meet 3 year IRS requirements.

NAEA: 30 hours annually.

Enrolled Agents are required to take 72 hours of continuing education during the 3-year enrollment cycle, and at least 16 hours for each respective year to maintain their EA license. These 16 hours must include at least 2 hours of enrolled agent ethics or professional conduct education. The continuing education requirements are pro-rated if enrollment occurs in the middle of an enrollment cycle, at a rate of 2 hours required education for each month or part of a month enrolled.

All continuing education programs are measured in terms of contact hours. A contact hour is 50 minutes of continuous participation in a program. The IRS only grants a tax enrolled agent credit for a full contact hour, i.e., 50 minutes or multiples thereof.

Qualifying tax CE programs must meet certain standards. A qualified sponsor must run all CPE programs. They must require attendance and must issue a certificate of attendance. The instructor's background, experience, education, and training should be appropriate for the subject matter. The course must provide a written outline, textbook, or suitable electronic educational materials. Self-study courses (including on-line, correspondence and taped program courses) do meet this standard if they require registration by the participant, provide a means of measuring completion such as a written test, provide an EA certification of successful completion of said test, and provide a written outline, textbook or acceptable electronic substitutes.

NAEA member requirements exceed the IRS standards for continuing education. NAEA members / associates must complete 30 hours of continuing education each year. For more information on this requirement please visit NAEA.org.

IRS RTRP CPE Requirements

Along with the implementation of tax preparer regulation comes a requirement for Registered Tax Return Preparers to complete annual continuing education (CE). The annual continuing education requirement is 15 hours, including 3 hours of federal tax law updates, 2 hours of ethics, and 10 hours of other federal tax law. The continuing education requirements for Registered Tax Return Preparers do not apply to attorneys, certified public accountants, and enrolled individuals, certain supervised preparers, and individuals who do not prepare Form 1040 series returns.

The continuing education begins in 2012. Individuals who are Registered Tax Return Preparers, and those who have provisional PTINs but have until December 31, 2013 to pass the test, will need to obtain 15 hours of continuing education courses from IRS approved providers during calendar year 2012 and each subsequent year.

Preparers must retain the following records for four years:

• The name of the CE Provider organization;
• The location of the program;
• The title of the program, approval number received for the program, and copy of the program content;
• Written outlines, course syllabi, textbook, and/or electronic materials provided or required for the program;
• The date(s) attended;
• The credit hours claimed;
• The name(s) of the instructor(s), discussion leader(s), or speaker(s), if appropriate; and
• The certificate of completion and/or signed statement of the hours of attendance obtained from the continuing education provider.

In addition, records must be maintained by the CE Provider to verify the participants who attended and completed the program for a period of four years following completion of the program. Tax professionals taking CE courses should expect the provider to request their first and last name, as well as their PTIN number in order to comply with reporting requirements.

Fast Forward Academy offers the most innovative CPE platform on the market and we are constantly making it better.

• EASE OF USE - the system is extremely user-friendly and intuitive.
• FREE Content to try before you buy
• FREE PDFs with the purchase of any online course
• Entertaining, Valuable & Credible Continuing Education.
• Courses are written and reviewed by EAs, CPAs, MBAs, and professional editors.
• Track the status of your CPE requirements
• View course test results and reports
• Save and exit a course anytime and resume where you left off
• Printable certificates of completion - Also verified with the IRS & contains our course IRS OPR numbers.

30 Day Money Back Guarantee

If you are unsatisfied with our products for any reason, you may initiate a return for a full refund of the purchase price of the item(s). To qualify for the refund we must receive notice within 30 days of the date of purchase, along with a brief explanation of the reason for the return, your original receipt, and the product must have been purchased through FastForwardAcademy.com.

A Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) form must accompany all eligible physical returns.

Are you an approved IRS provider?
Yes! In the past, the IRS assigned a provider number and is moving away from that system to review and approve the actual content / courses. Our courses have gone through the new process and our IRS OPR course numbers are published above. You should also note that we display our IRS OPR course numbers while you're taking the course and we are required to publish it on your certificate of completion. The IRS also requires us to administer an exam as well as a survey. All of our content, even our certificates have been reviewed by the IRS.

IRS Approval Letters (opens in a new window)



Are you an approved CTEC provider?
Fast Forward Academy has been approved by the California Tax Education Council (CTEC Provider # 6209) to offer "continuing education". A listing of additional requirements to register as a tax preparer may be obtained by contacting CTEC at P.O. Box 2890, Sacramento, CA, 95812-2890, toll-free by phone at (877) 850-2832, or on the Internet at www.ctec.org.

Is your course a book or electronic download?
CPE is an online course delivered direct through our Web site. PDFs are also available for paid content.

Do you have PDFs available for my records?
Yes, PDFs are available for paid content.

Do you cover at least 2 EA hours of enrolled agent ethics CE or professional conduct education?
Yes, the IRS enrolled agent education requirement for ethics is 2 hours per year minimum, so we offer enrolled agent ethics course(s) to our customers.

Is your CPE content updated to cover the current year's tax law?
Of course. All enrolled agent hours of CPE are updated for the current tax year.

Can your EA CPE content be applied towards NAEA CPE requirements?
Since our courses meet or exceed IRS guidance and since our courses are reviewed and approved by the IRS; yes, our content counts towards your NAEA CE requirements. Please keep in mind that the NAEA requires members and associates to acquire 30 hours of CPE per calendar year.

Can I buy one course at a time?
You can buy the courses individually or all together at a substantial discount.

How can I pay? Do you take phone orders?
We accept credit and debit cards. We also accept payments over the phone. (888)798-PASS (7277).

Please feel free to review our approval letters from the IRS concerning the continuing education courses we offer.

IRS Approval Letters (opens in a new window)



IRS Provider # UBWMF
CTEC Provider # 6209

Fast Forward Academy has been approved by the California Tax Education Council to offer "continuing education". A listing of additional requirements to register as a tax preparer may be obtained by contacting CTEC at P.O. Box 2890, Sacramento, CA, 95812-2890, toll-free by phone at (877) 850-2832, or on the Internet at www.ctec.org.