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Platinum's IRS approved AFTR tax courses for the annual filing season program are available now for the 2025 tax season.
What are the benefits of participating in the AFSP program?
By participating in the IRS Annual Filing Season Program you will be included in the IRS’s public directory of tax return preparers. Additionally, as a program participant, you have limited representation rights, you can represent your clients whose returns you have prepared and signed before examination, customer service representatives, and the Taxpayer Advocate Service in the year you participate in the program.
How do I participate in the AFSP program?
In order to participate in the IRS Annual Filing Season Program (AFSP) you must complete 18 or 15 IRS credit hours of continuing education. The 15 hour IRS continuing education tax course includes 10 hours of federal tax law topics, 2 hours of ethics, and 3 hours of updates and is available from January 1st - December 31st. The 18 hour IRS continuing education tax course includes 6 hours of an Annual Federal Tax Refresher (AFTR) course with a knowledge based comprehension test, 10 hours of federal tax law topics and 2 hours of ethics. The 18 hour IRS tax course is available each year from June 1st - December 31st. The program is directed to preparers who are not Attorneys, CPAs or Enrolled Agents. In order to determine whether to take a 15 hour or an 18 hour IRS tax course the guidelines are listed below. Tax return preparers who have successfully completed one of the following national or state tests would be exempt from taking the Annual Federal Tax Refresher course with a comprehension test.
Passed the Registered Tax Return Preparer (RTRP) test before 1/18/2013
Oregon/California/Maryland and other state based return preparer testing programs
Accredited Tax preparer test offered by the Accreditation Council for Accountancy or Taxation
Passed Part 1 of the Special Enrollment Exam (aka: SEE and EA Exam) during the 2 year eligibility window
Successful Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program reviewers and instructors
If a credentialed tax professional (CPA, attorney, Enrolled Agent, Enrolled Retirement Plan Agent, Enrolled Actuary) or the exempt group listed above wants to be a part of the Annual Filing Season Program, they must have 15 hours of continuing education from an IRS approved provider. The 15 credit hours will need to include 3 hours of federal tax updates, 10 Hours of Federal tax law topics, and 2 hours of Ethics. No CE credit will be given to Enrolled Agents for completing an AFTR course. Platinum Professional Services offers both the IRS AFSP 18 Hour including the AFTR tax course and the IRS AFSP CE 15 Hour tax course. Once you complete the IRS Continuing Professional Education tax course you will receive a Certificate of Completion from Platinum. Platinum will then report your completion to the IRS electronically. When the tax preparer has met all three requirements for the AFSP (renewed their PTIN, taken appropriate amount of continuing education, completed and passed the AFTR course/test if required), a record of completion will be available in the PTIN holder's online IRS account for printing. Any "unenrolled" preparer not already bound by Circular 230 will need to sign an agreement to follow sub-part b of Circular 230 before being able to print the record of completion from the Internal Revenue Service. There will be no cost to the preparer for the AFSP record of completion. The IRS will then list AFSP tax preparers in their public database including the tax preparer's credentials. Platinum Professional Services is approved by the Internal Revenue Service (approval #JK8E2) to offer both the IRS AFSP CE 18 Hour Tax Course including AFTR as well as IRS AFSP CE 15 Hour Tax Course. Platinum also offers an IRS AFSP Tax Return Preparer Prep Course including AFTR.
