My name is Jim Banks. After preparing my own tax returns for nearly forty years, I took a course in basic tax preparation at the H&R BLOCK office in Bozeman, Montana, in the fall of 1984. I was either a good student or else the instructor/manager was hard up for preparers. Whichever the case, she hired me as a preparer and I went to work in January, 1985. After 23 years with. H&R, I joined another practice in 2007.

I took the EA exam in 1992 and passed all four parts on the first try. As preparation I bought the high-priced review course from one of the established vendors. It had a lot of fill-in-the-blank material and some instructive text, but the most valuable part was the questions and problems that had obviously been taken from prior years' examinations. I think the fill-in-the-blank material was included only to qualify the course for CPE (continuing professional education) credit.

After I learned my exam scores, I was talking with my wife about how I'd studied and my thought that a study guide consisting solely of questions from past exams with thoroughly explained answers would be the best way for future candidates to study. My original thought was a set of flash cards. She said "Why not put it on the computer?" So FASTAX was born.

The first study guide, FASTAX 93 was sold in 1993. It contained the 1990, 1991, and 1992 exams. .

In addition to individual candidates, a number of instructors for formal review courses have adopted FASTAX as a text or supplementary material. FASTAX 2007 was used in courses offered by chapters of the National Association of Enrolled agents in Arizona, and California., From October 2002 until September 2006, I was the Montana member on the IRS Taxpayer Advocacy Panel.