Enrolled Agent Exam Syllabus: Part 1, 2 & 3 Explained

The Enrolled Agent Exam is a professional qualification for those who want to build expertise in US taxation and represent taxpayers before the IRS. Officially known as the Special Enrollment Examination or SEE, it has three parts covering individual taxation, business taxation, and IRS representation, practices and procedures.

Understanding the Enrolled Agent Exam syllabus is an important first step. The marks are not distributed equally across all sections, so knowing the section-wise weightage helps you decide where to spend more time and practise more questions.

This guide explains the enrolled agent syllabus for Parts 1, 2 and 3, including the exam pattern, section-wise weightage, scoring system, fees, eligibility requirements and a practical study sequence for first-time candidates.

What the IRS SEE Exam Looks Like?

The IRS Special Enrollment Exam or SEE, is a single qualification split into three independent parts. You clear them one at a time, in any order you like.

• 100 multiple-choice questions per part
• 85 scored and 15 experimental, unmarked questions
• 3.5 hours of testing time within a four-hour appointment
• Closed book, on-screen calculator and two 10-minute breaks
• Four attempts per part in a testing window

One change to note this year: PSI Services took over from Prometric on 1 March 2026, as confirmed in the IRS testing update. Domestic testing runs from 1 July 2026 to 28 February 2027. If you're writing from India, your window opens on 1 September 2026, and testing is remote-proctored only, so there are no in-person centres to book. The vendor and logistics changed. The syllabus didn't.

EA Syllabus Part 1: Individuals

Part 1 is Form 1040 country. Six sections, 85 scored questions.

Section	Scored Qs	Core topics
Preliminary work and taxpayer data	14	Filing status, dependency, residency, ITIN, due dates, FBAR
Income and assets	17	Wages, interest, capital gains, basis, IRAs, digital assets, debt cancellation
Deductions and credits	17	Standard vs itemised, QBI, child tax credit, EITC, education credits
Taxation	15	AMT, self-employment tax, net investment income tax, penalties
Advising the individual taxpayer	11	Filing status choices, divorce, estate and retirement planning
Specialized returns for individuals	11	Estate tax, gift tax, Form 706, Form 709, Form 8938

Mentor note: The first section reads like paperwork, so students tend to skim it. Fourteen questions is still 14 questions. Don't donate them.

Basis deserves a separate mention. It appears here, then again throughout Part 2, so the hours spent on it count twice.

Part 2 of the EA Syllabus: Businesses

Three sections, and the weightage is far from even.

Section	Scored Qs	Core topics
Business entities and considerations	30	Proprietorships, partnerships, C corps, S corps, LLCs, section 351
Business tax preparation	37	Income, COGS, depreciation, section 179, QBI, Schedule M-1, Forms 1065 and 1120
Specialized returns and taxpayers	18	Trusts and estates, exempt organisations, retirement plans, farmers, rentals

Sections one and two together give you 67 of 85. Almost eight marks in every ten.

Mentor note: This is the part candidates repeat. The rules build on one another partner basis, contributions and distributions and nobody learns their way through that by reading alone. Solve problems instead.

Section three gets pushed to the last week in almost every batch. That's over a fifth of the paper. Give it proper time.

Part 3: Representation, Practices and Procedures

Section	Scored Qs	Core topics
Practices and procedures	26	Circular 230, due diligence, conflict of interest, sanctions, preparer penalties
Representation before the IRS	25	Form 2848, Form 8821, transcripts, statute of limitations, appeals
Specific areas of representation	20	Installment agreements, offers in compromise, liens, levies, audits
Filing process	14	E-filing rules, EFIN, Form 8879, rejected returns, record retention

There's barely any arithmetic here. Instead, you get rules, deadlines and definitions that have to be exact.

Mentor note: Students from an audit or accounting background usually find Part 3 the strangest, since little of it resembles work they've done before. Short daily recall sessions beat long reading here.

How the IRS EA Exam Is Scored?

The scale runs from 200 to 800. The pass mark is 500.

Clear a part and the report simply says you passed, with no number attached. Fail it and you get the score plus a diagnostic breakdown of your weak sections, which is one of the most useful inputs when preparing for a retake.

A passed part stays valid for three years from the date you cleared it. Miss that deadline while finishing your third part, and the earliest pass drops off.

EA Exam Fees and Other Costs

Item	Cost
SEE testing fee	$317 per part
All three parts, no retakes	$951
PTIN	$18.75 for 2026; renewed annually
Form 23 enrollment fee	$140

You pay PSI when you book, and the fee is non-refundable. Turn up half an hour late and you pay it again. So book a slot when your mock scores hold steady, not when motivation peaks.

EA exam fees have shifted between windows more than once. Confirm the current figure on the IRS enrolled agents FAQ before paying.

Eligibility and the First Two Steps

No degree mandatory. No articleship. No prior experience requirement. What the IRS wants is a PTIN before you book, a government-issued photo ID matching your registration name, passing scores in all three parts, and then a suitability check covering your tax compliance and background.

One trap worth knowing: every window is tied to a tax year. This one tests law as amended up to 31 December 2025, with questions generally relating to calendar year 2025. A study guide from 2023 is simply the wrong book.

How to Work Through the EA Course Syllabus?

Print the content outline. Write the scored question count next to every section. That single page is now your study calendar.

Most working candidates we counsel plan 10 to 12 weeks per part at around 10 hours a week. Less than that can work too, but only if the weeks stay unbroken.

After that, follow the order that actually moves marks:

• Learn the logic, not the figures. Inflation-linked limits change yearly, and the exam usually supplies the tables.
• Master basis before anything else in Part 2.
• Practice long scenario questions, where three sentences matter and the rest is noise.
• Take Part 1 first. It builds the income and basis concepts that Part 2 assumes.

Mistakes we see repeated: three parts booked within six weeks, Part 2 read rather than solved, and Part 3 treated as light revision because there's no calculation in it.

If you're still choosing between routes, our counselors can compare the enrolled agent course with the US CPA path based on your background.

Also Read

• How to Become an Enrolled Agent (EA)?
• EA Salary in India: Enrolled Agent Jobs & Career Guide
• Career Scope for an Enrolled Agent (EA)
• Enrolled Agent vs CPA
• What is the Enrolled Agent Course?

Where the Enrolled Agent Certification Takes You?

An EA carries unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS. This is one reason US tax teams hiring across Bengaluru, Kochi, Hyderabad and Coimbatore ask for the credential. Employers include Big 4 US tax practices, tax and accounting KPOs, and mid-sized American CPA firms with India delivery centres. You'd usually start as a tax associate or preparer and move into review work.

On pay, we'd rather under-promise. It depends on your city, your employer and what you did before earning the credential. What the enrolled agent certification can do is get you into the room.

The Enrolled Agent Exam is large, but it's finite. It has a first page and a last one. If you'd like help fitting it around a job or a college semester, the counselling team at IIC Lakshya will sit with you and turn the enrolled agent syllabus into a week-by-week plan, at no cost.