Enrolled Agent services
Tax help from an Enrolled Agent
Representation before the IRS, letters answered, penalties abated, questions answered and the year ahead planned — by Ian Joiner, Enrolled Agent, the same person who reviews every return filed here. Each at a price said before you start, after a first look that is free.
Ian Joiner, Enrolled Agent — enrolled to practice before the Internal Revenue Service. Verify it in the IRS’s directory of credentialed preparers.
Praise God, I’m an Enrolled Agent!
The IRS has approved my enrollment. I said here that I would say so the day that changed, and this is that day: I am enrolled to practice before the Internal Revenue Service. That means I can now represent you before the IRS, answer its letters for you and ask for penalties to be removed, as well as explain and plan — and I will still tell you, every time, when you do not need to pay anyone for it.
What an Enrolled Agent is
An Enrolled Agent is a tax practitioner the IRS has enrolled to practice before it, after a three-part examination on individual and business tax and a tax-compliance and background check. Like an attorney or a CPA, an Enrolled Agent has unlimited practice rights: any taxpayer, any federal tax matter, any IRS office. Enrolled Agents are bound by Circular 230 and must complete 72 hours of continuing education every three years to keep the credential.
The IRS’s own description is at irs.gov/tax-professionals/enrolled-agents. An Enrolled Agent is not an employee of the IRS, and I am not.
You may not need this.
The IRS explains its own notices free at irs.gov; a first-time penalty abatement can be asked for by calling the number on your notice; the Taxpayer Advocate Service and Low Income Taxpayer Clinics represent eligible taxpayers free. If one of those is the right route for you, the free first look will say so, and that is the end of it.
The services
Tax consultations
$60 for 30 minutes or $120 per hour
Your tax question, answered by an Enrolled Agent — by phone or video, with the rule behind the answer.
- A sale, a new business, a move, a windfall, a return you are not sure of, a letter you have not answered
- A straight answer where there is one, and where there is not, what it depends on and what to find out
- The IRS rule or instruction line behind each thing I tell you, so you can check it
- A short written note of what we concluded, afterwards, if you want one
Tax planning packages
from $250
A written plan for the year ahead, worked from your own figures: estimates, withholding, timing, entity and retirement choices.
- Your projected federal tax for the year, from your own figures, and the estimated payments or withholding that cover it
- The choices in front of you — the timing of income and deductions, retirement contributions, an entity election, a sale — each worked through with its effect in dollars
- What to do, when, and what to keep, as a written plan you can hand to whoever prepares the return
- A follow-up conversation once the plan is in your hands
Explain an IRS letter
$40 for a straightforward notice
A plain-English explanation of one IRS notice, with recommended next steps, delivered privately in your account.
- What the IRS is saying and what it is asking for, the deadline it states, the amounts it shows
- The documents to gather, and your recommended next steps
- One brief follow-up question included
- Submitted and read privately in your Gideon Tax account; nothing from the notice goes by e-mail
Free route: The IRS explains its own notices, free, at irs.gov — many need nothing more than a careful read.
Submit a notice for screening →IRS notice responses
from $150
A written answer to the IRS on your behalf — the facts, the documents and the law — sent the way the notice says, with the receipt kept.
- A CP2000 or other proposed change, a math-error notice, a request for documents, a proposed assessment, a notice you disagree with
- The response drafted from your records and the law, reviewed with you, and signed by you — or by me as your representative, under a power of attorney
- Sent the way the notice directs — by fax through Gideon Send, by mail, or online — and the proof it went, kept
- What to expect next from the IRS, and a word when it answers
First-time penalty abatement requests
from $200
A request to remove a failure-to-file, failure-to-pay or failure-to-deposit penalty under the IRS's first-time abate relief, asked for only when you qualify.
- Your compliance history checked first — the IRS grants this relief only to a taxpayer with no penalties in the three prior years, every required return filed, and the tax paid or arranged — so it is asked for only when it can be granted
- The request made in writing, with the penalty, the period and the grounds stated the way the IRS's own procedure asks for them
- Reasonable cause argued instead, or as well, where the first-time relief does not reach
- The IRS's answer, explained, and the next step if it is no
Free route: You can ask the IRS for first-time abatement yourself by calling the number on your notice. Many people are granted it on the phone.
Ask about this →IRS representation
$150 per hour
Standing in for you before the IRS under a power of attorney: an examination, a collection matter, a payment plan or offer, an appeal.
- A Form 2848 power of attorney, prepared for your signature, so the IRS deals with me and not with you
- An examination or audit, a collection matter, an installment agreement or offer in compromise, a lien or levy, an appeal
- The IRS spoken to and written to on your behalf, and you told what was said, every time
- An estimate of the hours before I start, and a word before it is exceeded
Free route: The Taxpayer Advocate Service and Low Income Taxpayer Clinics represent eligible taxpayers free.
Ask about this →The conditions, plainly
- The first look is free.
- Write or call with what is going on. I will say whether I can help, what it will cost and how, and whether there is a free route you should take first. Nothing is charged for that, and nothing is charged until you have agreed a scope and a price in writing.
- A “from” price is a floor, not an estimate.
- It is the least the work costs. Your price is quoted after the free first look, before anything begins, and does not change unless the work does — and you hear about that first, not on the invoice.
- Hourly work comes with an estimate.
- Consultations and representation are billed by time. You get an estimate of the hours before I start, a word before it is exceeded, and the total so far whenever you ask.
- No one can promise an IRS outcome, and I will not.
- I can promise the work: the facts gathered, the law found, the request made properly and followed up. The IRS decides. A fee is for the work, not the result, and the page for each service says what the work is.
- Representation needs your signature, not just your word.
- The IRS speaks to a representative only under a power of attorney (Form 2848) you have signed. I prepare it; you sign it; it names the tax matters and years it covers and nothing else, and you can revoke it at any time.
- Your information stays between us.
- Tax return information is protected by 26 U.S.C. § 7216 and by Circular 230, and is used only for the work you engaged me for. I do not ask for IRS passwords or account credentials, and I will not need your full Social Security number until there is a form to put it on.
How it works
- Write or call with what is going on — the form below, an e-mail, a phone call. No documents and no Social Security number yet.
- The first look, free. I say whether I can help, what it will cost and how, and whether there is a free route you should take first.
- The scope and the price, in writing. A short engagement letter says what the work is and what it costs. For representation, a Form 2848 power of attorney comes with it for your signature.
- The work, with you told what was done and what the IRS said, every time.
- Payment by invoice, as the engagement letter says: a fixed or “from” price before the work starts, hourly work as it goes. Nothing is charged through this site.
Ask
Use the form, or reach me directly — both land with the same person, and that person is me.
- Email ian@gideonsolutions.us
- Call or text 980-441-7721
- Message me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/iajoiner
If a deadline on a notice is close, say so first and read the notice’s own instructions now; asking me does not extend it. To have a letter explained rather than answered, the $40 Notice Review has its own page, and to learn to file your own return, so does taxpayer education.