IRS delays processing of enrolled agent renewals, but enrollments won't expire

The Internal Revenue Service said Thursday that enrollments won’t expire for enrolled agents whose enrollments are due to expire at the end of March because the partial government shutdown delayed processing of the EAs’ renewals.

“Due to the government shutdown, the processing of renewals for enrolled agents whose enrollment expires on March 31, 2019, will be delayed,” said the IRS. “The IRS is automatically extending enrollment card expiration for the current renewal cycle which includes all enrolled agents with social security numbers ending in 0, 1, 2, or 3. The deadline for submitting timely renewals was Jan 31, 2019. All renewal applications will be worked on a first in, first out basis. Enrolled agents with social security numbers ending in 0, 1, 2, or 3 who have not yet submitted a renewal should do so immediately at Pay.gov.”

The 35-day partial government shutdown wreaked havoc at the IRS, and the agency has been struggling ever since the Treasury and the other affected departments reopened for business only a few days before the start of tax season. Earlier this week, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson released her annual report to Congress, focusing on the lingering impact of the shutdown on the IRS, which had to cope with more than 5 million pieces of unopened mail (see Taxpayer Advocate sees continuing impact on IRS from shutdown). Last month, in the midst of the shutdown, the IRS was also forced to cancel a hearing on the regulations surrounding the user fees for enrolled agents (see IRS user-fee hearing canceled due to shutdown).

Timothy Fadek/Bloomberg