Enrolled Agent Exam Practice Questions 2026: Free Questions by Topic

What is the enrolled agent exam?

The Special Enrollment Examination, usually shortened to SEE, is the three part test that makes you an enrolled agent. An enrolled agent is the only tax credential the IRS itself issues, and it carries unlimited practice rights: you can represent any taxpayer, on any tax matter, before any IRS office, anywhere in the country. Attorneys and CPAs have the same unlimited rights through their own licences, but they get there through a state board. The SEE is the federal route, and it has no degree requirement and no experience requirement. If you hold a valid PTIN and are at least 18, you can sit it.

How is the exam structured, and what do you need to pass?

Each of the three parts has 100 multiple choice questions and lasts 3.5 hours. Only 85 of those 100 are scored: the other 15 are experimental questions being trialled for future exams, and they are not marked on screen, so you have to answer every question as if it counts. Scoring is on a scale from 200 to 800 and the IRS has set the pass mark at a scaled 500. Because it is a scaled score rather than a raw percentage, there is no published number of correct answers that guarantees a pass, and any prep site that quotes you one is guessing.

• Part 1, Individuals: individual returns from filing status through to estates and trusts
• Part 2, Businesses: entities, business income and expenses, depreciation, farmers and exempt organisations
• Part 3, Representation, Practices and Procedures: Circular 230, powers of attorney, examinations, appeals and collection
• Fee: $317 per part, paid at scheduling and non-refundable
• Attempts: up to 4 per part within a testing window
• Carryover: a part you pass stays valid for 3 years from the date you passed it

Which tax year does the 2026 to 2027 window test?

Calendar year 2025. For exams taken between 1 July 2026 and 28 February 2027, every reference is to the Internal Revenue Code, regulations, forms and publications as amended through 31 December 2025, and candidates are instructed not to consider legislation, court decisions or penalty amounts after that date. That instruction matters more in this window than in most, because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act rewrote a long list of 2025 numbers. The child tax credit is $2,200 rather than $2,000. The state and local tax cap is $40,000 rather than $10,000. The section 179 dollar limit is $2,500,000 with the investment phase-out starting at $4,000,000. There are three brand new deductions, for qualified tips, qualified overtime and qualified passenger vehicle loan interest, that did not exist a year ago. Study material written before the Act will teach you the old figures, and the old figures are exactly what the exam uses as its wrong answers.

Where do the scored questions actually sit?

The IRS publishes the count of scored questions per topic area, and the spread is worth knowing before you plan your revision. Business Tax Preparation alone is 37 of the 85 scored questions on Part 2, which is more than 43 percent of that part in a single topic. Practices and Procedures plus Representation before the IRS together make up 51 of the 85 on Part 3. Filing Process, by contrast, is 14. Studying every topic evenly means overspending on the small ones.

• Part 1: Preliminary Work with Taxpayer Data 14, Income and Assets 17, Deductions and Credits 17, Taxation 15, Advising the Individual Taxpayer 11, Specialized Returns for Individuals 11
• Part 2: Business Entities and Considerations 30, Business Tax Preparation 37, Specialized Returns and Taxpayers 18
• Part 3: Practices and Procedures 26, Representation before the IRS 25, Specific Areas of Representation 20, Filing Process 14

Who runs the exam now?

PSI Services. Effective 1 March 2026 the IRS moved the SEE away from Prometric, which had administered it for years, and appointed PSI to develop and deliver it. Registration and scheduling now go through PSI, and any guide that still tells you to book a seat through Prometric is out of date. The vendor change did not alter the content, the three part structure, the 500 scaled pass mark or the fee.

How to use these pages

Each topic page below explains the rules that topic keeps testing, sets out one table of the distinction candidates most often get wrong, answers the questions people actually ask about it, and then gives you free practice questions with full explanations. Nothing here is a leaked exam question: every question is original wording written from a public domain IRS source and cited back to it.