AFTR Course for Indiana Tax Preparers: What the 2027 Season Requires

§1 Does Indiana License Tax Preparers?

No. Indiana has never required a state license, exam, or registration for paid tax preparers. There’s no Indiana DOR credential to earn, and unlike Michigan or Illinois, Indiana doesn’t require a PTIN to appear on the state return itself. The entire continuing-education picture for a non-credentialed Indiana preparer runs through the IRS.

What Indiana does have, uniquely among most AFSP states, is a local tax layer: all 92 counties impose their own county income tax on residents and on nonresidents who work there, with rates currently ranging from about 0.5% to over 3%. That county tax isn’t filed separately — it’s calculated on Schedule CT-40 and submitted with the same IT-40 state return. It doesn’t change anything about federal AFSP or AFTR requirements, but it does mean an Indiana preparer’s workload is heavier per return than a preparer’s in a state with only one tax layer to check.

§2 Exempt vs. Non-Exempt: Where Indiana Preparers Land

With no state program of its own, Indiana isn’t one of the three states — Oregon, California, and Maryland — whose credential holders qualify for the IRS’s AFSP exemption. That puts most non-credentialed Indiana preparers on the standard non-exempt track, needing the full 18-hour package including the AFTR course — see our full exempt vs. non-exempt guide for every category. You’d only land in the exempt track by separately holding one of the recognized out-of-state credentials, passing SEE Part 1 within the last three years, or serving as an active VITA/TCE volunteer.

§3 The Hour-by-Hour Breakdown for Non-Exempt Preparers

Non-exempt Indiana preparers need 18 CE hours from IRS-approved providers before the December 31 cutoff, split into fixed categories.

SCHEDULE A — NON-EXEMPT PREPARER CE REQUIREMENTS (2027 FILING SEASON)

The 10 hours of federal tax law topics can come from any IRS-approved subject area. The 2 ethics hours must come from a course specifically approved for AFSP ethics credit. The AFTR itself is a single timed course with a built-in comprehension test; it can’t be split across sessions.

§4 The AFTR Course: What to Expect

The AFTR is a 6-hour course offered by IRS-approved providers between June 1 and December 31 of the year before the filing season, so for the 2027 season your window closes December 31, 2026. It covers the coming season’s federal tax law changes, common preparer errors, and procedural updates, and ends with a pass/fail comprehension test — see what the test itself looks like before you sit down for it.

§5 Deadlines and the Record of Completion

Your IRS-approved provider reports completed hours directly to the IRS CE system; you don’t submit transcripts yourself. It’s worth confirming your hours landed correctly in your IRS Continuing Education Transcript, accessible through your Tax Pro Account. Your PTIN also needs to be current for any of this to count.

§6 Why County Tax Makes the AFSP Credential Matter More Here

Because Indiana has no state license to check, and because every return in the state involves at least two tax layers — state and county — clients have extra reason to want a preparer who’s demonstrably current on federal rules. The AFSP Record of Completion is the one credential available: it puts a preparer’s name in the IRS’s public Tax Pro Directory and grants limited representation rights for returns they personally prepared. It doesn’t touch county-tax accuracy directly, but in a state where preparers already juggle a second layer of math, a client has good reason to prefer one who’s also kept up with the IRS’s annual refresher. For the AFSP hours themselves, see our companion page on AFSP requirements for Indiana preparers, and browse the full AFSP & AFTR guide hub for every state and topic.

§7 FAQs