The EA exam pattern, paper by paper
Most guides tell you the Special Enrollment Examination has three parts and 100 questions each. That is true and nearly useless. What you actually need is the blueprint — how many of the 85 scored questions sit in each domain, what the three question formats look like, how a 200–800 scaled score is built, and where the time goes on the day. All of it is published by the IRS. Here it is, in one place.
The three papers at a glance
Same length, same pass mark, very different shape. The domain count alone tells you where the difficulty lives: Part 1 spreads 85 questions across six domains, Part 2 concentrates them into three.
| Part 1 — Individuals | Part 2 — Businesses | Part 3 — Representation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domains | 6 | 3 | 4 |
| Largest domain | Income and Assets, and Deductions and Credits — 17 questions each | Business Tax Preparation — 37 questions | Practices and Procedures — 26 questions |
| Character | Wide and computational | Deep and computational | Rules, forms and deadlines |
| Study hours we suggest | 110–140 | 150–200 | 70–100 |
| Reputation | The usual starting point | The one that fails people | The quickest win |
Exactly how each paper is built
The IRS publishes a content outline for every part, and against each domain it prints the number of scored questions that domain will carry. That is a marking scheme in plain sight, and it is the single most useful document in your preparation. Pick a paper, then click any slice, bar or domain to drill in — every topic listed is the IRS’s own wording.
Part 1 — Individuals
Part 1 is individual taxation end to end — filing status and dependency, every flavour of income, deductions and credits, the extra taxes that bolt on top, planning advice, and then estate, gift and foreign-asset reporting. Six domains, the widest spread of any paper.
- Preliminary work to prepare tax returns
- Use of prior years' returns for comparison, accuracy, and carryovers for current year's return
- Taxpayer personal information (e.g., date of birth, marital status, dependents, identity protection PIN, state issued photo ID)
- Residency status and/or citizenship (e.g., visas, green cards, resident alien or non-resident alien, ITIN)
- Filing requirements and due date
- Taxpayer filing status
- Sources of worldwide taxable and non-taxable income (e.g., interest, wages, business, sales of property, dividends, rental income, flow-through entities, alimony received)
- Sources of applicable exclusions and adjustments to gross income (e.g., foreign earned income exclusion, retirement plans, HSAs, alimony paid, health insurance, self-employment tax)
- Sources of applicable deductions (e.g., itemized, standard)
- Qualifications for dependency
- Sources of applicable credits (e.g., education, foreign tax, child and dependent care, credit for other dependents, child tax credit)
- Sources of tax payments and refundable credits
- Previous IRS correspondence with taxpayer
- Additional required returns to be filed, and taxes paid (e.g., employment, gifts, international information returns, and other information returns)
- Special filing requirements (e.g., foreign income, presidentially declared disaster areas, injured spouse)
- Foreign account and asset reporting (e.g., FBAR, Form 8938)
- Minor children's unearned income (“Kiddie” tax)
- ACA requirements (e.g., total household income, premium tax credit, household size)
- Income
- Taxability of wages, salaries and other earnings
- Interest Income (e.g., taxable and non-taxable)
- Dividends and other distributions from mutual funds, corporations, and other entities
- Personal property rental
- Gambling income and allowable deductions (e.g., Form W-2G, documentation)
- Tax treatment of cancellation of debt (e.g., Form 1099C, foreclosures, insolvency)
- Tax treatment of a U.S. citizen/resident with foreign income (e.g., tax treaties, Form 1116, Form 2555, Form 3520, Form 5471)
- Other income (e.g., scholarships, barter income, hobby income, alimony, non-taxable combat pay, unearned income, taxable recoveries, NOL, illegal income)
- Constructive receipt of income
- Constructive dividends (e.g., payments of personal expenses from a business entity)
- Passive income and loss
- Pass-through income (e.g., Schedule K-1, income, deductions, basis, qualified business income [QBI] items)
- Royalties and related expenses
- State/local income tax refund and other itemized deduction recoveries
- 1099 MISC, 1099 NEC, 1099 K reporting, irregularities, and corrections
- Retirement income
- Basis in a traditional IRA (Form 8606)
- Comparison of and distributions from traditional and Roth IRAs
- Distributions from qualified and non-qualified plans (e.g., pre-tax, after-tax, rollovers, Form 1099R, qualified charitable distribution)
- Excess contributions and tax treatment (e.g., penalties)
- Penalties and exceptions on premature distributions from qualified retirement plans and IRAs
- Prohibited transactions and tax consequences
- IRA conversions and recharacterization (Form 8606)
- Required minimum distributions
- Loans from qualified plans
- Taxability of Social Security and Railroad Retirement benefits
- Inherited retirement accounts
- Foreign pensions and retirement income
- Property, real and personal
- Sale or disposition of property including depreciation recapture rules and 1099A
- Capital gains and losses (e.g., netting effect, short-term, long-term, mark-to-market, virtual currency)
- Basis of assets (e.g., purchased, gifted or inherited)
- Basis of stock after stock splits and/or stock dividends (e.g., research, schedules, brokerage records)
- Publicly traded partnerships (PTP) (e.g., sales, dispositions, losses)
- Sale of a personal residence (e.g., IRC sec 121 exclusions)
- Installment sales (e.g., related parties, original cost, date of acquisition, possible recalculations and recharacterization)
- Options (e.g., stock, commodity, ISO, ESPP)
- Like-kind exchange
- Non-business bad debts
- Investor versus trader
- Adjustments to Income
- Self-employment tax
- Retirement contribution limits and deductibility (e.g., earned compensation requirements)
- Health savings accounts
- Other adjustments to income (e.g., student loan interest, alimony, moving expenses for active military, write-in adjustments)
- Self-Employed Health Insurance
- Itemized deductions and QBI
- Medical, dental, vision, long-term care expenses
- Various taxes (e.g., state and local, personal property, real estate)
- Interest expense (e.g., mortgage interest, investment interest, tracing rules, points, indebtedness limitations)
- Charitable contributions (e.g., cash, non-cash, limitations, documentation required)
- Nonbusiness casualty and theft losses
- Other itemized deductions
- Itemized deductions for Form 1040-NR
- Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction
- Credits
- Child and dependent care credit
- Child tax credit and credit for other dependents
- Education credits
- Foreign tax credit
- Earned income tax credit (e.g., paid preparer's earned income credit checklist, eligibility and disallowance)
- Adoption credits (e.g., carryovers, limitations, special needs)
- ACA premium tax credit
- Other credits (refundable and non-refundable) (e.g., health coverage tax credit, energy credits, Retirement savings contribution credit)
- Taxation
- Alternative minimum tax and credit for prior year
- Household employees
- Underpayment penalties and interest
- Self-employment tax
- Excess Social Security withholding
- Tax provisions for members of the clergy
- Tax provisions for members of the military
- Income in respect of decedent
- Net investment income tax
- Additional Medicare tax
- Uncollected Social Security and Medicare tax
- Other taxes (e.g., first time homebuyer credit repayment)
- Advising the individual taxpayer
- Reporting obligations for individuals (e.g., 1099, bartering, cash)
- Property sales (e.g., homes, stock, businesses, antiques, collectibles)
- Education planning (e.g., lifetime learning credit, IRC section 529 plans)
- Estate planning (e.g., gift versus inheritance, trusts, family partnerships, charitable giving, long-term care, life insurance)
- Retirement planning (e.g., annuities, IRAs, employer plans, early retirement rules, required minimum distribution, beneficiary ownership, charitable distributions from an IRA)
- Marriage and divorce (e.g., divorce settlement, common-law, community property, alimony)
- Items that will affect future/past returns (e.g., carryovers, net operating loss, Schedule D, Form 8801, negative QBI carryover)
- Injured spouse
- Innocent spouse
- Estimated tax and penalty avoidance (e.g., mid-year estimated tax planning)
- Adjustments, deductions, and credits for tax planning (e.g., timing of income and expenses)
- Character of transaction (e.g., use of capital gain rates versus ordinary income rates)
- Advantages and disadvantages of MFJ/MFS/HOH filing statuses in various scenarios (e.g., joint and several liability)
- Conditions for filing a claim for refund (e.g., amended returns)
- Penalty of perjury
- Estate Tax
- Gross estate, taxable estate (calculations and payments), unified credit
- Jointly held property
- Marital deduction and other marital issues (e.g., portability election)
- Life insurance, IRAs, and retirement plans
- Estate filing requirements and due dates (e.g., Form 706: Form 1041)
- Gift Tax
- Gift-splitting
- Annual exclusion
- Unified credit
- Effect on estate tax (e.g., Generation skipping transfer tax)
- Filing requirements (e.g., Form 709)
- International Information Reporting
- Filing and reporting requirements and due dates (e.g., FBAR, Form 8938, Form 8865, Form 5471, Form 3520)
- Covered accounts (e.g., FBAR, Form 8938)
- Potential penalties (e.g., failure to file, underreporting, substantially incomplete, statute of limitations, reduction of tax attributes)
- Distinctions between FBAR and Form 8938 requirements
Our read on this paper
Broadest but shallowest. Nothing here is conceptually hard; the difficulty is sheer surface area and the number of dollar thresholds and phase-outs you must hold in memory. Most candidates pass this one first.
- Learn the Form 1040 flow first — income, adjustments, deductions, tax, credits, other taxes, payments. Every question sits somewhere on that skeleton, and knowing where stops you panicking.
- Thresholds and phase-outs are where marks are won and lost. Build one sheet of numbers for CY2025 and revise it daily rather than re-reading chapters.
- Basis is tested relentlessly — purchased, gifted, inherited, after stock splits. Drill it until it is automatic.
- Do not skip the last two domains. Advising and Specialized Returns are 22 of 85 scored questions between them — more than a quarter of the paper — and they are the ones candidates leave until the night before.
Part 2 — Businesses
Part 2 is entities and business returns — sole proprietorships through partnerships, C corporations, S corporations and LLCs, then the whole mechanics of preparing a business return, and finally trusts, estates, exempt organisations, retirement plans, farmers and rental property.
- Business entities
- Sole proprietorships
- Partnerships and qualified joint ventures (QJV)
- Corporations
- S corporations
- LLCs
- Tax-exempt entities and associations
- Entity type default classifications and elections
- Employer identification number
- Accounting periods (tax year)
- Reporting requirements (e.g., Forms W-2, W-4, Form 1099)
- Hobby versus business determination and loss limitations
- Partnerships
- Partnership income, expenses, distributions, and flow-through (e.g., self-employment income)
- Family partnerships
- Partner's dealings with partnership (e.g., exchange of property, guaranteed payments)
- Contribution of property and/or services to a partnership (e.g., partnership's basis, property subject to indebtedness)
- Basis of partner's interest
- Disposition of partner's interest
- Partnership formation (e.g., partnership agreement, general vs limited partners, capital contributions)
- Dissolution of partnership (e. g., sale, death of partner)
- Filing requirements, due dates, penalties, and audit notice requirements
- Partnership cancellation of debt
- Partnership level audit and opt-out
- Corporations in general
- Filing requirements, due dates, and penalties
- Earnings and profits
- Shareholder dividends, distributions, and recognition requirements
- Special deductions and credits (e.g., dividends received deductions, charitable deduction)
- Liquidations and stock redemptions
- Accumulated earnings tax
- Estimated tax payments
- Corporate minimum tax credit
- Forming a corporation
- Services rendered to a corporation in return for stock
- IRC section 351 exchange
- Transfer and/or receipt of money or property in addition to corporate stock
- Transfer of property subject to indebtedness
- Controlled groups
- Closely held corporations
- S corporations
- Requirements to qualify (e.g., qualifying shareholders)
- Election procedure
- Income, expenses and separately stated items
- Treatment of distributions
- Shareholder's basis (e.g., loan basis, distributions and losses in excess of basis, services for stock)
- Revocation, termination and reinstatement
- Debt discharge
- Business Income
- Gross receipts and other income
- Cost of goods sold (e.g., inventory practices, expenditures included, uniform capitalization rules)
- Net income/loss and at-risk limitations
- Cancellation of business debt
- Business expenses, deductions and credits
- Officers and employees' compensation (e.g., deductibility, fringe benefits, rules of family employment, statutory employee, necessary and reasonable)
- Business rental deduction, including self-rentals
- Depreciation, amortization (start-up and organizational cost), IRC section 179, depletion, bonus depreciation, and correcting errors
- Business bad debts
- Business travel, meals, and gift expenses
- Vehicle use and expenses
- Interest expense
- Insurance expense
- Taxes (e.g., deductibility of taxes, assessments, and penalties; proper treatment of sales taxes paid, excise)
- Employment taxes
- Casualties, thefts, and condemnations
- Qualified business income (QBI) (e.g., SSTB, calculations, phase out, UBIA)
- Eligibility and deductibility of general business credits (e.g., disabled access credit, R & D credit, small business healthcare tax credit, foreign tax credit)
- Net operating loss deduction
- Home office
- Business assets
- Basis of assets
- Disposition of property or assets
- Like kind exchange
- Converted property
- Capitalization and repair regulations (e.g., elections)
- Analysis of financial records
- Proper business type, the use of classification codes, and year to year comparison
- Income statement
- Balance sheet (e.g., proofing beginning and ending balances, relationship to income statement and depreciation)
- Method of accounting and changes (e.g., accrual, cash, hybrid, Form 3115)
- Depreciation recovery (e.g., recapture, IRC sec 280F)
- Pass-through activity (e.g., K-1, separately stated items, non-deductible expenses)
- Reconciliation of tax versus books (e.g., M-1, M-2, M-3)
- Related party activity
- Loans to and from owners
- Advising the business taxpayer
- Reporting and filing obligations (e.g., extended returns and potential penalties, international information returns, Form 1099 series, Form 8300)
- Payments and deposit obligations (e.g., employment tax, excise tax)
- Record-keeping requirements (e.g., mileage log, accountable plans)
- Selection of business entity (e.g., benefits and detriments)
- Comingling (e.g., personal usage of business accounts, separation of business and personal accounts)
- Advice on accounting methods and procedures (e.g., explanation of requirements)
- Transfer of property in or out of the business
- Life cycle of the business (e.g., formation, dissolution)
- Type of industry (e.g., specified service business owners)
- Worker classification (e.g., independent contractor versus employee, outside sales, full-time versus part-time)
- Deductions and credits for tax planning (e.g., timing of income and expenses, NOL, depreciation versus IRC section 179 versus bonus depreciation)
- ACA compliance
- Trust and estate income tax
- Trust types (e.g., simple/complex, grantor, irrevocable, tax shelters, foreign)
- Distributable net income and accounting income
- Exclusions, exemptions, and deductions
- Fraudulent trusts
- Income (e.g., allocations, corpus versus income)
- Separately stated items (e.g., items reported on the K-1)
- Filing requirements, tax years, and penalties
- Exempt organizations
- Qualifying for and maintaining tax-exempt status (e. g., IRC 501(c))
- Applying for IRS tax-exempt status (e. g., Form 1023, Form 1024)
- Filing requirements (e.g., Form 990 series)
- Unrelated business taxable income
- Retirement plans
- Employer and employee contributions
- Reporting requirements
- Plans for self-employed persons (e.g., SEP and SIMPLE)
- Prohibited transactions
- Qualified and non-qualified plans
- Non-discrimination rules
- Farmers
- Farm income (e.g., livestock, crop insurance proceeds, subsidies, patronage dividends, conservation payments)
- Depreciation for farmers
- Disaster-area provisions (e.g., drought, flood, other weather-related conditions)
- Farm rental (e.g., Form 4835)
- Farm tax computation (e.g., Schedule J, Schedule SE, estimated tax)
- Rental Property
- Real estate professional qualifications
- Commercial rentals versus residential rentals
- Mixed used property/vacation home
- Passive loss limitation (e.g., special $25,000 allowance, MAGI limits)
- Rental income (e.g., deposits, pre-paid rent, not rented for profit)
- Rental expenses (e.g., allocation between personal and rental, repair versus capitalized)
Our read on this paper
Universally considered the hardest of the three, and the numbers explain why: just three domains, but two of them carry 30 and 37 scored questions. Depth is required — partner and shareholder basis, distributions, and book-to-tax reconciliation cannot be skimmed.
- Basis is the spine of this paper. Partner's basis, S-corporation shareholder basis including loan basis, and what happens when distributions or losses exceed basis — get these wrong and you lose questions across two domains at once.
- Learn the four entity types as a comparison grid, not four separate chapters: formation, taxation of income, treatment of distributions, filing form and due date, and what happens on dissolution.
- Business Tax Preparation alone is 37 of 85 scored questions — 44% of the paper. Depreciation, section 179, bonus depreciation, QBI and the M-1/M-2/M-3 reconciliations deserve the largest single block of your study time.
- Specialized Returns looks like a dumping ground but is a reliable 18 questions. Trusts, Form 990, SEP/SIMPLE and the $25,000 passive rental allowance are all high-frequency and quick to learn.
Part 3 — Representation, Practices and Procedures
Part 3 is the professional paper: Circular 230, who may practise and how far, preparer penalties and due diligence, powers of attorney, building a client's case, the collection process, audits, appeals, and the mechanics of e-filing and record keeping.
- Practice before the IRS
- What constitutes practice before the IRS
- Categories of individuals who may practice and extent of practice privileges
- Requirements for Enrolled Agents
- Information to be furnished to the IRS
- Omission or error on return, document, or affidavit
- Rules for employing or accepting assistance from former IRS employees or disbarred/suspended persons
- Rules for restrictions on advertising, solicitation and fee information
- Rules regarding fees (e.g., contingent, unconscionable)
- Due diligence requirements
- Conflict of interest
- Rules for refund check negotiation
- Standards for written advice, covered opinions, tax return positions and preparing returns
- Continuing education requirements
- Enrollment cycle and renewal
- Rules for prompt disposition of matters before the IRS
- Rules for returning a client's records and documents
- PTIN requirements
- Practitioner supervisory responsibilities
- Sanctionable acts
- Incompetence and disreputable conduct
- Sanctions imposed by the Office of Professional Responsibility
- Frivolous submissions (returns and documents)
- Fraudulent transactions (e.g., badges of fraud)
- Rules and penalties
- Assessment and appeal procedures for preparer penalties
- Types of penalties (e.g., negligence, substantial understatement, overvaluation)
- Furnishing a copy of a return to a taxpayer
- Signing returns and furnishing identifying numbers
- Keeping copies or lists of returns prepared
- Employees engaged or employed during a return period (e.g., IRC section 6060)
- Preparer due diligence penalties
- Power of attorney
- Purpose of power of attorney
- Signature authority (e.g., extension of assessment period, closing agreement)
- Authority granted by taxpayer
- Limitations on signing tax returns on behalf of taxpayer
- Proper completion of power of attorney (Form 2848)
- Alternate forms of power of attorney (durable)
- Rules for client privacy and consent to disclose
- Distinctions between power of attorney (Form 2848) and tax information authorization (Form 8821)
- Requirements to be met when changing or dropping representatives or withdrawal of representative
- Purpose of a Centralized Authorization File (CAF) number
- Conference and practice requirements (Publication 216)
- Building the taxpayer's case - Preliminary work
- Identification of tax issue(s) with supporting details
- Potential for criminal aspects
- Competence, expertise, and time to handle issue
- Conflict of interest in regards to representation
- Transcripts from IRS (e.g., access to and use of e-services)
- Taxpayer financial situation
- Taxpayer's ability to pay the tax (e.g., installment agreements, offer in compromise, currently not collectible)
- General financial health (e.g., bankruptcy, lawsuits, garnishments, cash flow, assets, and insolvency)
- Third-party research (e.g., property assessment for taxes, asset values, state and local tax information)
- Discharge of the tax liability in bankruptcy
- IRS Collection Financial Standards
- Supporting documentation
- Financial documents and expense records (e.g., cancelled checks or equivalent, bank statements, credit card statements, receipts, brokerage records)
- Legal documents (e.g., birth certificate, divorce decrees, lawsuit settlements)
- Prior and subsequent tax returns
- Other substantive and contemporaneous documentation (e.g., corporate minutes)
- Business entity supporting documents (e.g., partnership agreement, corporate bylaws)
- Legal authority and references
- Internal Revenue Code and income tax regulations
- Revenue rulings and revenue procedures
- Case law
- IRS forms, instructions, and publications
- Private letter ruling
- Internal Revenue Manual
- Authoritative versus non-authoritative source material
- Tax treaties
- Related issues
- Statute of limitations
- Post-filing correspondence (e.g., math error notices, under-reporting notices)
- Deadlines and timeliness requirements
- Third-party correspondence (e.g., witness communications, employment records)
- Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests
- Tax avoidance vs tax evasion
- Tax return disclosure statements
- Taxpayer Advocate Service (e.g., criteria for requesting assistance)
- Taxpayer identity Theft
- Judicial levels of representation beyond the scope of EA representation
- Representing a taxpayer in the collection process
- Extension of time to pay (e.g., Form 1127)
- Installment agreements
- Offer in compromise
- Collection appeals program (e.g., denial of installment agreements, discharge applications)
- Collection appeals and due process (e.g., lien, levy, and Form 12153)
- Adjustments to the taxpayer's account (e.g., abatements and refund offsets)
- Requesting an audit reconsideration (e.g., documents and forms)
- Representing a decedent
- Collection notice and Notice of Federal Tax Lien
- Levy and seizure of taxpayer's property
- Currently Not Collectible (e.g., reasons and reactivation)
- IRS Collection Summons (e.g., purposes)
- Collections statute of limitations
- Trust fund recovery penalty
- Amended returns and claims for refund (e.g., Form 1040X, Form 843, effect on statute of limitations)
- Passport revocation
- Penalties and/or interest abatement
- Penalties subject to abatement
- Basis for having penalties abated or refunded
- Basis for having interest abated or refunded
- Interest recalculation
- Procedures for requesting abatement
- Representing a taxpayer in audits/examinations
- IRS authority to investigate
- Limited practitioner privilege (e.g., IRC section 7525)
- Verification and substantiation of entries on the return
- IRS authority to fix time and place of investigation
- Steps in the process (e.g., initial meeting, submission of IRS requested information)
- Interpretation and analysis of revenue agent report (RAR) (e.g., 30-day letter)
- Interpretation and analysis of CP-2000 notice and correspondence audits
- Explanations of taxpayer options (e.g., agree or appeal)
- Taxpayer's burden of proof
- Representing a taxpayer before appeals
- Right to appeal Revenue Agent findings
- Request for appeals consideration (e.g., preparation, elements contained)
- Enrolled Agent appearance at appeals conference
- Settlement function of the appeals process
- Issuance of 90-day letter
- Accuracy
- Reliance on software (e.g., review of results)
- Miscalculations and recognition of duplicate entries
- Record maintenance
- Length of time to retain returns and records
- Data security (e.g., electronic, systems, paper)
- Electronic filing
- Application process to be an e-file provider (e.g., e-services, EFIN)
- E-file mandate and exceptions (Form 8948)
- Advertising standards
- Definition and responsibilities of an ERO
- Levels of infractions
- Compliance requirements to continue in program
- EFIN revocation appeal process
- E-file authorization and supporting documentation (e.g., Form 8879 and Form 8453)
- Rejected returns and resolution (e.g., client notification, IP PIN)
Our read on this paper
The smallest body of law and the most learnable. It is rules and procedure rather than computation, so there is very little arithmetic — but it is unforgiving about precise detail: which form, which deadline, which authority.
- Read Circular 230 itself, start to finish. It is short, it is free, and Practices and Procedures is 26 of 85 scored questions — the single largest domain in the paper.
- Know your forms cold: 2848 versus 8821, 12153 for a collection due process hearing, 1127 for extension of time to pay, 1040-X and 843 for claims, 8948 for an e-file exception, 8879 for e-file authorisation.
- Deadlines are the examiner's favourite trick — 30-day letter, 90-day letter, statutes of limitation on assessment and collection. Make a timeline, not a list.
- Learn the authority hierarchy: Code and regulations, then revenue rulings and procedures, then case law, and know which sources are not authoritative at all.
Where the 85 questions actually sit
Read these three bars and you can see your study plan. Business Tax Preparation is 37 questions on its own — the largest single domain anywhere in the examination, and more than the whole of Part 3’s two smallest domains combined.
Each bar is the same 85 scored questions. Part 2 splits them across only three domains — which is exactly why it punishes shallow preparation.
The trap this exposes
Candidates instinctively divide study time equally across topics. The blueprint says don’t. In Part 1, Advising the Individual Taxpayer and Specialized Returns are 11 questions each — they look minor, but together they are 22 of 85, and they are routinely the two domains people leave until the final week. In Part 3, Filing Process is only 14 questions but has the shortest reading list of any domain on any paper. Hours per question, not hours per chapter.
The three question formats
Every question is multiple choice with four options, and the IRS uses three formats. The examples below are the official ones from the Candidate Information Bulletin — have a go before you reveal each answer.
Which of the following entities are required to file Form 709, United States Gift Tax Return?
Supplemental wages include payments for:
All of the following tests must be met for a child to be a qualifying child, EXCEPT:
“Single best answer” — the rule that catches careful people
The bulletin is explicit that you must choose the single best answer, and it gives a sharp illustration: suppose a question asks for the Form 1040 filing deadline in a year when the normal date fell on a holiday, so the technically correct answer is 16 April. If 16 April is not among the options but 15 April is, then 15 April is the single best answer — because that is generally the filing deadline.
In other words, do not talk yourself out of the obviously intended answer because you can construct an exception. Pick the best available option, not the perfect one.
Fifteen questions that do not count
Of the 100 questions you answer, only 85 are scored. The other 15 are experimental: the IRS is gathering statistics on them before they join the scored pool in a future sitting. They are scattered through the paper and are not identified, and they count neither for nor against you.
The practical consequence is a psychological one. If you meet three questions in a row that feel impossible or oddly worded, there is a real chance they are experimental. Do not let them shake your confidence or eat your clock — answer, flag, move on. Every scored question is worth the same, so a hard one and an easy one are worth identical marks. There is no negative marking, so never leave a question blank.
How the scoring really works
Your raw count of correct answers is converted onto a scale from 200 to 800. The pass mark, set by a panel of Enrolled Agents and IRS representatives after a formal scoring study, is 500.
Two details matter more than the number itself. First, if you pass you do not get a score — just a passing designation. The IRS is blunt about why: all values above passing indicate that a candidate is qualified, not how qualified. So there is no distinction to chase and no point optimising for a high mark.
Second, if you fail you do get the number, plus diagnostic information showing where you were weak. The IRS gives two reference points: a scaled score of 495 means you were very close to passing, while 245 means you were far from it. That difference should completely change your response — 495 says revise and rebook, 245 says go back to the material.
You see pass or fail on screen the moment you finish, and PSI emails a score report. You can also reprint any score report by logging in to your PSI account, opening the Manage tab, finding the exam and choosing “Check for Score Report”.
Where the four hours go
You are booked for 4 hours but you only get 3.5 hours of testing time. The rest is tutorial, survey and two scheduled breaks — and knowing that in advance stops you treating the tutorial as exam time.
Am I on schedule?
100 questions in 210 minutes is 2.1 minutes each. Drag to where you are in a mock and see whether you are banking time or burning it.
At 105 minutes you should be at roughly question 50.
- Questions left
- 50
- Minutes left
- 105
- Pace now needed
- 2.1 min/q
A practical rule: aim to reach question 50 by the 100-minute mark. That leaves a little over a minute and a half in hand per remaining question for the ones you flagged.
Windows, attempts and the blackout
The examination is not available year-round. Testing stops in March and April each year while the examination is updated for new tax law.
The current window runs July 1, 2026 to February 28, 2027. It opened in July, after the examination moved from Prometric to PSI Services on 1 March 2026.
Four attempts, and the rules around them
You may sit each part up to 4 times per testing window, in any order and at your convenience. PSI’s bulletin also says you must wait at least 24 hours before rescheduling for the same exam part, and if you do not pass a part after four attempts in a window, you wait for the next window to try it again.
Money discipline matters here, because the fee is $317 each time. Cancel at least 48 hours before your appointment and you keep the fee; cancel inside 48 hours and it is forfeited. Miss the appointment, or arrive 30 minutes or more late, and you cannot test: the fee is forfeited and you pay again to rebook. Fees are generally not refundable or transferable; refunds are considered only in very limited situations, such as the death of the candidate or a duplicate registration. For every fee in rupees, from the PTIN to Form 23, see Enrolled Agent cost in India (2026–27).
If you are taking the exam from India
International testing is remote-proctored only — there is no in-person international testing at all. International candidates, including those in India, take the EA exam this way, so check PSI for current international scheduling before you fix your dates. Book through PSI directly, check its current system requirements when you book, and treat any third-party claim about specific Indian test centres as unconfirmed. Our guide to taking the EA exam from India shows how PSI’s public checker displays dates in India Standard Time, and the steps from PTIN to booking.
Remote testing brings its own rules that catch people out: nobody else in the room, pets included; no phone, watch or other electronic device in your testing area; you stay in camera view except during the two scheduled breaks; and there is no calculator of your own and no scratch paper, only the on-screen calculator and whiteboard. Water is a grey area: the bulletin allows a clear, unlabelled container with a lid, but PSI’s remote rules say drinks on your desk may have to be removed before the exam is released, so follow the proctor. The exam-day checklist covers the rest.
The three-year clock
A pass is valid for three years from the date you sat it — not three years from your first attempt, and not a single deadline for all three parts. Each part carries its own expiry, which is why the order and spacing of your attempts genuinely matters. This is the IRS’s own worked example.
An extension for international candidates
PSI’s candidate bulletin gives extra time: domestic candidates with parts expiring between 1 May and 30 June 2026 get two more months on the three-year carryover, and international candidates with parts that expire under the three-year rule will receive additional time. The bulletin does not say how much, so if you have a part in that position, confirm its new expiry with PSI before you book.
One more deadline that sits outside the exam itself: once you pass your third part, you must apply for enrollment on Form 23 within one year, with the $140 fee. Passing all three and then drifting is a real way to waste the whole effort.
Which year’s tax law is tested
For the July 1, 2026 – February 28, 2027 window
Every reference is to the Internal Revenue Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, and IRS forms, instructions and publications as amended through December 31, 2025. Unless a question says otherwise, it relates to calendar year 2025, and “current tax year” means 2025. You are told explicitly not to take into account any legislation, court decision or penalty amount after December 31, 2025.
This is the rule most self-study candidates get wrong, and it cuts both ways. Studying from material that is a year old means learning superseded thresholds. But being too current is also a trap: if a change takes effect after December 31, 2025, answering according to it is wrong for this window, however right it is in practice. Check the cutoff date printed in whatever notes you buy, and check it again if you roll into the next window.
Our questions follow the same cutoff. To check your Part 1 or Part 2 knowledge against the law as amended through December 31, 2025, try the free practice test: 25 questions in 50 minutes, with an explanation for every answer.
What order should you sit them in?
You can take the parts in any order, and the choice is strategic rather than administrative. Two sequences work well.
Part 1 → Part 2 → Part 3 is the default, and it is the right default. Part 1 builds the individual-tax vocabulary that Part 2 assumes, and it gets your easiest pass on the board early, which matters for morale. The risk is that Part 2 then sits between you and the finish line while your Part 1 clock is already running.
Part 3 → Part 1 → Part 2 suits anyone short on confidence or time. Part 3 is the smallest syllabus and the fastest pass, so it converts 70–100 hours into a result and proves to you that the examination is beatable. Then you take the hardest paper last, with two passes banked.
What almost never works is starting with Part 2. It is the deepest paper, it assumes individual-tax fluency you may not have yet, and failing your first attempt at $317 a go is a discouraging way to begin.
Whichever order you choose, one step comes before the first booking: you need a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) before you can register for the examination. Our PTIN guide for Indian candidates walks through the application line by line.
Study hours, honestly estimated
Individuals
Broadest but shallowest. Nothing here is conceptually hard; the difficulty is sheer surface area and the number of dollar thresholds and phase-outs you must hold in memory. Most candidates pass this one first.
Businesses
Universally considered the hardest of the three, and the numbers explain why: just three domains, but two of them carry 30 and 37 scored questions. Depth is required — partner and shareholder basis, distributions, and book-to-tax reconciliation cannot be skimmed.
Representation, Practices and Procedures
The smallest body of law and the most learnable. It is rules and procedure rather than computation, so there is very little arithmetic — but it is unforgiving about precise detail: which form, which deadline, which authority.
These are our estimates for a working professional starting without a US tax background — roughly 330 to 440 hours in total, about six to eight and a half hours a week over the twelve months we suggest planning for with our course. They are not IRS figures. A commerce graduate or a practising CA will move faster through Part 1 and Part 2 than someone coming from outside finance.
Six things we would tell any candidate
- Print the content outline for your paper and tick topics off against it. It is the examiner’s own marking scheme; no commercial syllabus beats it.
- Weight your time by scored questions, not by how interesting a topic is. Thirty-seven questions on Business Tax Preparation deserve more of your life than fourteen on Filing Process.
- Do full 100-question, 3.5-hour mocks, not 20-question quizzes. The failure mode in this exam is stamina and pace, not knowledge.
- Answer every question. There is no negative marking, and an unanswered question is a guaranteed zero where a guess is a one-in-four chance.
- Read the stem twice when you see EXCEPT, NOT or ALL OF THE FOLLOWING. The all-of-the-following-except format causes more careless losses than any genuine gap in knowledge.
- Check the tax-law cutoff on your study material before you pay for it. Material built for the wrong window teaches you the wrong numbers.
Sources
Every structural figure on this page — domain question counts, formats, scoring, windows, fees — comes from the IRS or from PSI’s official Candidate Information Bulletin, last checked on 12 September 2026. The study-hour estimates, the strategy and the commentary are ours.
Examination structure, fees and dates change — the blackout period exists precisely because the paper is rewritten annually. Confirm the current position on IRS.gov and the PSI Candidate Information Bulletin before booking. This article is general information for prospective candidates, not tax or legal advice. Sankhya Academy is an independent coaching provider and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the Internal Revenue Service or PSI Services.
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Know the pattern. Now do the work.
Recorded classes mapped to these exact domains, an LMS with MCQ practice, full-length mocks and live weekend Q&A with faculty — built for working professionals in India.