Who participates in the IRS Annual Filing Season Program?

The IRS Annual Filing Season Program (AFSP) is a voluntary competency program for professional tax preparers and new tax preparers in the United States. The program consists of 18 credit hours of continuing education.  12 of the IRS continuing education credits are to be from courses taken, and 2 of those are, specifically, required to be from Ethics courses. The remaining 10 can be a mixture of general tax law and tax law updates. 6 continuing education credits are given for the passing of the 100 question Annual Federal Tax Refresher (AFTR) exam.

Anyone can take and pass an IRS-Approved AFSP Course, but obtaining a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) is required in order to receive your AFSP Record of Completion. This may be unavailable to foreign nationals.

Exempt Preparers are eligible to receive the AFSP Record of Completion without the requirement to take the AFTR exam. They must maintain 15 annual continuing education requirements and renew their PTIN yearly.