Personal Finance (Not Investing) • IRS 2848 POA tips and tricks

I've just had to prepare a 2848 POA form for an aging relative, and after many hours of googling, including picking up some good info from this very forum, I thought I'd post it all in one place for the benefit of other 'heads. (As many of you may have discovered, the IRS does not recognize "normal" POA documents, and requires the 2848 instead.) If anyone has additions or corrections, feel free to post 'em - I don't claim this is definitive, nor is it legal advice, but I feel pretty good about it.

First, some sources:

• This IRS webinar gets into the gory details pretty well, including some non-obvious stuff. It's long, and probably faster to skim through the transcript. If the link ever goes dead, I have a printout of the transcript that I can upload for anyone who needs it.
• This website is some sort of anti-identity theft service, which you can ignore, but has a couple of good blog posts on the subject.

How I filled mine out, line by line:
PART I

1. Taxpayer Information - This is straightforward, but don't forget the address. I left "Plan Number" blank, as my 2848 was for an individual taxpayer.
2. Representives - Again, remember the addresses. Check the "notices and communications" box. Put "NONE" in the CAF no. box, and the IRS will assign you one. "PTIN" should be blank, if you are a normal person and not a tax preparer. (I thought this would be my SSN, but IRS confirmed on the phone that it is not.)
3. Acts Authorized - in the three columns, respectively, I put "Income", "1040", and "2019-2027". Note that you can put as many *previous* years as you want, but you can only put three *future* years, from Dec 31st of the year you file the 2848. So since it's 2024 now, 2027 was the ending year. I also listed "Gift", "709" and "2019-2027" on the second line. The form instructions and the webinar go into gory detail about how to format this section.
4. Specific Use Not Recorded in CAF - leave this blank, for the normal situation where the POA is ongoing. The instructions have a painfully long section about special-case non-CAF situations.
5. (5a) Additional Acts - if you want to be able to sign a return, there's specific language needed here. Check the "Sign a Return" box, and write: “This power of attorney is being filed pursuant to 26 CFR 1.6012-1(a) (5), which requires a power of attorney to be attached to a return if a return is signed by an agent by reason of disease or injury".
6. Retention of Prior POA - I left this blank, as there was no prior 2848.
7. Taxpayer Signature - have your elderly relative sign and date. If they are unable to, see below for a note about signing the 2848 as a legal POA. "Title" I left blank, as this was for an individual, not a trust or business. Note that the dates of the taxpayer's signature and the representative's signature in PART II must be within 45 days of each other.

PART II

• Designation - "f" for family member.
• Licensing Jurisdiction - put your relationship to the taxpayer here. "child" in my case. There's a note on the form explaining this.
• Bar License - I left this blank.
• Signature - don't forget to sign and see the note above about the dates.

Some other random things I learned:

• There's another form, Form 56 Notice Concerning Fiduciary Relationship. From what I can tell from the instructions, and from what the IRS rep told me, this form only applies if you are a court-appointed guardian, if the taxpayer has died, etc. It does *not* seem to apply if you're strictly someone who has been named POA in the normal way via a legal POA document.
• I've never actually had a problem signing as POA for a return that's electronically submitted (by our accountant), via the usual 8879 E-file Signature Authorization, and I've never had to attach my (normal, non-2848) POA document. I assume that's because it's an electronic filing.
• The instructions indicate that if the taxpayer is unable to sign, you can sign as their POA, and attach a copy of your POA documents. I have no idea how likely this is to work, and I'm glad I don't have to go that route.
• You can fax in the completed 2848. Make sure you have the latest version of the instructions, as the fax numbers can change from year to year. When I attempted this, the IRS fax machine was screwed up for many days, and the fax kept failing. (Calling from a phone gave several rings, followed by a busy signal.) Just keep trying, or use a fax service that has automatic retries.

I haven't yet heard back from IRS with a confirmed acceptance, so it's possible that I've missed something, and will need to update/correct some of this info. But it was painful enough to get to this point, so I thought I'd share.

Statistics: Posted by meeotch — Tue Jan 16, 2024 4:25 pm — Replies 5 — Views 225

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