Introduction:

Being an Enrolled Agent will give you countless opportunities to earn as much as you desire as your salary is not limited to a single job-paying post. You can make outside your main job by charging services for tax representation, expert tax advice, real estate manager, and other related roles.
The flexibility that the profession naturally entails brings you to a certain level where you can perform several roles all at once; hence, earning more. Thus, Enrolled Agents are always relevant to the finance field and will always be demanded by many taxpayers.
Start to play with numbers and calculate the potential earnings of EAs and learn how to capitalize on the nature of the profession to discover boundless financial opportunities.

As we know, Google has an answer for every question we have in mind. So, once you hit the search engine to find out how to become an enrolled agent and to look for information regarding the enrolled agent salary, different figures will come out.
There is no definite amount for an agent salary. It is always based on the EA’s role, years of experience, and work location.
But to begin with, there are three salary levels for Enrolled Agents: the entry-level, the mid-level, and the senior level.
Say for an entry-level EA with 0-5 years of experience, an average of $42,000 annually can be pocketed.
A mid-level EA with 5-10 years of work experience, meanwhile has an average salary of $50,000 per year. Ultimately, the senior-level EA with ten years and more work experience can earn an average of $60,000 every year.
In general, the average annual pay of an Enrolled Agent in the United States is $56,745.Also, in the U.S., the agent salaries differ from one state to another. For example, New York stationed EAs earn an average of $62,079 annually while California-based EAs make less with an average of $57,476 yearly.

Enrolled Agent Levels

Other sources about the EA salary posted lower figures than the stipulated figures in this article, which only goes to show that the EA salaries are varying about work conditions and the EA’s qualifications.
Entry-level agents usually are tax practitioners. They review and prepare tax returns for the business units and other taxpayers they are affiliated to.
Mid-level enrolled agents can still be tax preparers, but they are armed with more experience so they can help companies decide and perform much more complicated tasks involving finances such as coordinating with auditors and helping in bank reconciliations.
Senior-level agents are the most paid in the accounting realm. Enrolled Agents at this level are the financial problem solvers and tax managers of businesses.
As the agent’s experience increases, the opportunities for salary upgrade also increase.

CPAs give EAs a run for their money

Based on a 2012 study, the tax workforce and revenue agents earned 27% less than accountants. It only goes to show that accountants have more chances of having bigger salaries and more prestige status than agents. But this doesn’t mean that agents are less capable than the accountants. Enrolled Agents usually work more in businesses whose accounting needs are of microfocus. But an EA with a lot of experience could earn more than a beginning CPA.
Enrolled Agents earn relatively less than CPAs simply because all the roles agents perform can also be achieved by CPAs while EAs are limited to taxing jobs.

Enrolled Agents’ battle cry: less is more

While it is true that Enrolled Agents enjoy less income than professional accountants, a taxing job such as the Enrolled agents’ cannot be discounted after all.
Those who have the passion for working with tax and its complicated regulations are the ones choosing the EA career, not to mention the education and costing factor aspirants have under their belt.
Agents may earn less, but the expertise they provide in performing taxing roles gives more justifying reasons to line them equally with the accountants and attorneys in representing individuals and corporations before the Internal Revenue Service.